Post by fanniemae1969 on Sept 18, 2005 23:01:12 GMT -5
Hello everyone I know that I've been invited to this board, and I thought I would share with you my experience in getting started on the relief efforts for those effected by the hurricane, and hope they can help you too.
A bit of insight to me....I'm an unemployed, single mother of 3 kids..13, 11, and 3. I have a friend that is from New Orleans (St. Benard's Parish), and watching the news night after night starting to really anger me on how things were being handled down there.
So one evening, I called my best friend and told her that I wanted to do something, and asked her if she wanted to help me out. I told her that I would do the footwork if she wanted to help me on the other things. (Little did I know what would eventually happen...but more to that story shortly.)
So on Friday, the 2nd of Sept...I put my youngest daughter in the car, and drove to spot after spot looking and asking for a facility to help me out on their space to gather things. Unfortunately, I ran in to wall after wall, as no one could (or wanted to) help. I finally went to the Community Center in town, and they offered their gym.
I set it up for the 7th-9th thinking that at most..I might get a few boxes. They let me use their copier, and one of the girls there helped me out with the flyers. With my 3 yr old there...we made up about 1500 flyers to post around town. I also was able to use their fax machine, and started faxing tv, radio and newspapers about the drive, hoping the word would get out. (Boy did it ever..but more of that later.)
The next day, Sat, I put my daughter in the stroller, and my best friend and I walked all around downtown. She took one side of the street, me on the other. She contacted a few churches and they took a ton of them to put in their Sunday programs. Most businesses took them and proudly posted them in their windows. Some would talk to me for about 20 minutes...glad that someone was starting some type of collection besides money.
The next day we continued the walk around town, and started to ask businesses for boxes. Monday (Labor Day) we bought a few supplies..thinking that if this thing didn't take off, we didn't have alot of money invested. (Basically bought 6 rolls of tape, a few markers, and some poster boards to make cards from.) I also got a call from a radio station that we could use their truck, as I didn't have that lined up..but hoped someone would step up to help. Sunday, when it came out in the paper, I got the call from the station.
I ran the drive from 10am until 8pm for the 3 days. Tuesday started, and by the time I got there at 9:30am...there were already boxes and bags sitting at the front door. By the time 10am rolled around..there was literally a line of cars coming up with them packed to the hilt! After that day...I realized quickly that I was going to have to extend this thing.
Day after day, radio stations called for updates. TV stations came to interview me and film the effort. Newspapers came and did interviews for their papers. But inbetween all that..I stood by the door and thanked everyone who came in and dropped things off. I called local pizza places to see if they would donate food for the volunteers. (Which I've never ate so much pizza in my life! LOL) We called the local high school for kids to volunteer after school.
With the reception we received, I extended the drive to go through until Sunday the 12th. UNREAL the amount of things we received. The first truck was loaded and ready to go.
Second truck got a bit harder to get a hold of...but it came to us. He was such an awesome guy...no words could express how I feel about this guy.
Day after day..night after night...the things came, and the volunteers helped out. I lost my voice most of 2 weeks. Long hours after being there for all that time, plus coming home and searching the net for sites that I might find a trucker and his truck on. I was running about 20 hrs a day...just me. And inbetween all this, I still had to be "mom" and run kids to practices and schools.
Last Thursday, the 15th, the first truck arrived, and dropped things off within an hour to Hammond, LA. Second truck arrived the next morning at 8am...unloaded within 45 mins. And all this time, we were still packing and loading things in to boxes, putting them on skids, wrapping the plastic on them.
When the last trucker left..he said to me "Baby..you are going to need atleast 3 more trucks to haul all this." Little did I know..it's actually four.
I'm still on tv, radio and newspapers making the announcements. I've called the Governor, but haven't gotten anywhere with him. We are soliciting different businesses for money to fund any trucks we might be able to find and take the things to the Gulf states. But unfortunately...from the truckers we have talked to...most truckers and/or companies, don't or can't get involved because of either A) their company can't send anymore trucks down; or B) FEMA has gotten involved and the truckers are saying they don't need or want to get in to that, because there's still alot of them down there...stuck.
So at this point, I have had a storage facility here in town donate several storage sheds for our things until we can get the trucks here to load up. I have one coming tomorrow morning at 8am to go down. But I still need 3 more trucks. (The Community Center was getting to the point that they didn't want to deal with me any longer because there were so many things.)
So I've been in touch with a few guys were are very sweet and might be able to help me out. (I've been to chat rooms and boards that the truckers frequent. Found them by looking things up on Yahoo.) I've also been on the phone calling other states from Michigan, Virginia, Minnesota, and a few others trying to get some help.
Tomorrow will be back on the phones seeing if I can get someone. If I can't, my best friend and I have decided that we are going to rent trucks and go down ourselves.
Hope this helps anyone who is wanting to get something started. It's not easy. It's long hours. Little sleep. Exhaustion. But I know this needed and still needs to be done. I'll sleep when it's all over.
Speaking of...off to bed with me. Look forward to hearing from you!
Phaedra
Claremont, NH
A bit of insight to me....I'm an unemployed, single mother of 3 kids..13, 11, and 3. I have a friend that is from New Orleans (St. Benard's Parish), and watching the news night after night starting to really anger me on how things were being handled down there.
So one evening, I called my best friend and told her that I wanted to do something, and asked her if she wanted to help me out. I told her that I would do the footwork if she wanted to help me on the other things. (Little did I know what would eventually happen...but more to that story shortly.)
So on Friday, the 2nd of Sept...I put my youngest daughter in the car, and drove to spot after spot looking and asking for a facility to help me out on their space to gather things. Unfortunately, I ran in to wall after wall, as no one could (or wanted to) help. I finally went to the Community Center in town, and they offered their gym.
I set it up for the 7th-9th thinking that at most..I might get a few boxes. They let me use their copier, and one of the girls there helped me out with the flyers. With my 3 yr old there...we made up about 1500 flyers to post around town. I also was able to use their fax machine, and started faxing tv, radio and newspapers about the drive, hoping the word would get out. (Boy did it ever..but more of that later.)
The next day, Sat, I put my daughter in the stroller, and my best friend and I walked all around downtown. She took one side of the street, me on the other. She contacted a few churches and they took a ton of them to put in their Sunday programs. Most businesses took them and proudly posted them in their windows. Some would talk to me for about 20 minutes...glad that someone was starting some type of collection besides money.
The next day we continued the walk around town, and started to ask businesses for boxes. Monday (Labor Day) we bought a few supplies..thinking that if this thing didn't take off, we didn't have alot of money invested. (Basically bought 6 rolls of tape, a few markers, and some poster boards to make cards from.) I also got a call from a radio station that we could use their truck, as I didn't have that lined up..but hoped someone would step up to help. Sunday, when it came out in the paper, I got the call from the station.
I ran the drive from 10am until 8pm for the 3 days. Tuesday started, and by the time I got there at 9:30am...there were already boxes and bags sitting at the front door. By the time 10am rolled around..there was literally a line of cars coming up with them packed to the hilt! After that day...I realized quickly that I was going to have to extend this thing.
Day after day, radio stations called for updates. TV stations came to interview me and film the effort. Newspapers came and did interviews for their papers. But inbetween all that..I stood by the door and thanked everyone who came in and dropped things off. I called local pizza places to see if they would donate food for the volunteers. (Which I've never ate so much pizza in my life! LOL) We called the local high school for kids to volunteer after school.
With the reception we received, I extended the drive to go through until Sunday the 12th. UNREAL the amount of things we received. The first truck was loaded and ready to go.
Second truck got a bit harder to get a hold of...but it came to us. He was such an awesome guy...no words could express how I feel about this guy.
Day after day..night after night...the things came, and the volunteers helped out. I lost my voice most of 2 weeks. Long hours after being there for all that time, plus coming home and searching the net for sites that I might find a trucker and his truck on. I was running about 20 hrs a day...just me. And inbetween all this, I still had to be "mom" and run kids to practices and schools.
Last Thursday, the 15th, the first truck arrived, and dropped things off within an hour to Hammond, LA. Second truck arrived the next morning at 8am...unloaded within 45 mins. And all this time, we were still packing and loading things in to boxes, putting them on skids, wrapping the plastic on them.
When the last trucker left..he said to me "Baby..you are going to need atleast 3 more trucks to haul all this." Little did I know..it's actually four.
I'm still on tv, radio and newspapers making the announcements. I've called the Governor, but haven't gotten anywhere with him. We are soliciting different businesses for money to fund any trucks we might be able to find and take the things to the Gulf states. But unfortunately...from the truckers we have talked to...most truckers and/or companies, don't or can't get involved because of either A) their company can't send anymore trucks down; or B) FEMA has gotten involved and the truckers are saying they don't need or want to get in to that, because there's still alot of them down there...stuck.
So at this point, I have had a storage facility here in town donate several storage sheds for our things until we can get the trucks here to load up. I have one coming tomorrow morning at 8am to go down. But I still need 3 more trucks. (The Community Center was getting to the point that they didn't want to deal with me any longer because there were so many things.)
So I've been in touch with a few guys were are very sweet and might be able to help me out. (I've been to chat rooms and boards that the truckers frequent. Found them by looking things up on Yahoo.) I've also been on the phone calling other states from Michigan, Virginia, Minnesota, and a few others trying to get some help.
Tomorrow will be back on the phones seeing if I can get someone. If I can't, my best friend and I have decided that we are going to rent trucks and go down ourselves.
Hope this helps anyone who is wanting to get something started. It's not easy. It's long hours. Little sleep. Exhaustion. But I know this needed and still needs to be done. I'll sleep when it's all over.
Speaking of...off to bed with me. Look forward to hearing from you!
Phaedra
Claremont, NH