We gave clothes, sheets, towels, vases, dishes, 2 used tvs and a tv stand to a displaced family here in Houston that lost everything.
My wife and I contemplated if we could take in a family into our house but decided we just don't feel comfortable with only one full bathroom and no proper bedroom. It would be too cramped. Thankfully, my neighbor across the street took in a family. I provided them with 2 beds, lots of clothes + other items when find an appt. I also have offered to pay some of them to do handyman work around the house which they gladfully accepted. I also donated $300 of items from Sam's to a local church doing a food drive.
Mostly donations, from Red Cross to local drop-offs, etc. Three of my friends were at the Astrodome/Arena helping out over the weekend, and it's my hope to help out next, but I keep hearing they aren't accepting new volunteers at the moment. The process looks to be much different from that first weekend. Work is also coordinating donation efforts, which I've been a part of.
That's what we did, DaDakota. We were going to gather up some of the clothes around the house to donate, but they said they were overwhelmed with "physical donations," and needed the cash. The generosity of the regular folks of this state has always been amazing. If only we elected people who were as generous! Keep D&D Civil!!
Instead of renting a car and roadtripping down to WV for my wife's family river rafting trip, we took the money we would have spent on car rental, gas, hotel, and food and donated it to the Red Cross. We spent Labor Day weekend at Central Park instead. It was great.
I gave a couple of hundred dollars to the Red Cross. It's good to see that conservatives and liberals both have the hearts (if not their heads) in the right places. To answer your question - I can't really blame anyone for hurricane proparedness - but the post hurricane response has just been pathetic. Some local radio station (I live in SoCal) interviewed some FEMA person about disaster preparedness in SoCal - and the spokeshole's answers are quite frightening. She couldn't even confirm that water and blankets would be delivered to the Staples Center if large numbers of people were evacuated there. Ultimate, GW is the head of government - and some blame (right or wrong) has to be directed his way. I don't want to sound all pro-big business, but it would seem inconceivable to me that a big corporation in charge of disaster relief would react in such a tepid and impotent way. I can only wonder how poorly the FEMA bureaucracy is run.
Thanks and I'm in touch with the local Vihara chapter. They've been working with other Asian American groups on tsunami relief and we were thinking about using the Houston chapter as a local distributor for aid we raise here.
I will be at the George R. Brown from 7AM-3PM Wednesday thru Friday, helping parents get their kids enrolled in HISD schools....so if you don't see me post around here for the next few days, it's not because I got banned.....it's because I got busy!
- volunteered at the UH-Oregon game Thursday night collecting $ for the Red Cross - donated 4 bags of shoes, clothes, and toiletries to Salvation Army on Saturday - ongoing volunteer work at the Houston Food Bank throughout the week at least
I dont have extra money or food right now. But I do have a bunch of clothes I am going to donate to the salvation army.
We donated money (red cross) and clothes (donation drive at kids school). I'll donate some time if I can get some free.
Thanks for all of your comments and its great to hear the denizens of the D & D getting out and helping. I knew it was in y'all. The one thing I'm hearing a lot is how shelters and collection organizations are getting too full of stuff and how volunteers at places like the Astrodome are being turned away. For people who want to volunteer there's a big need for help dealing with the huge outpouring of generosity. Although its not as satisfying as working directly with refugees many of these groups like the Red Cross and Salvation Army could use help sorting relief donations and also doing clerical work processing all of the monetary donations along with coordinating relief efforts. I know that my local Red Cross chapter is strapped for help since many of their regular staff are out in the field.
Yep...they don't want our clothes anymore in Austin...for now. They have 20 semis to sort through first. We gave money to the Red Cross and Salvation Army (my personal favorite)
As it turned out, my employer doesn't have any event/drive to raise fund for Katrina relief. Granted it's a state employer, the zero effort to help Katrina victims is definitely not something I am pround of. I am glad I didn't wait until I found out about this yesterday. On the other hand, my wife's company has 1-to-1 match on employee's donation. Very generous and charitable IMO. I am kinda curious to know what are going on with other employers around the country. Would be great if you can share what you know.
I posted this in the Hangout Katrina sticky but figured I would post it here too. Does anyone know of any groups that are working on hurricane recovery for the Vietnamese shrimp fishermen?
My employer is always very active in relief activies: having contributed $5 mil cash + ~ $2 mil other stuff and providing 2-to-1 match on employee's donation. Great Company!
2 to 1 match! That's outstanding! Care to mention what company it is so they can get the credit they deserve? (at least in the world of the D & D)
