At 6am this morning I tuned in my local Air America station at 1010 KXXT and instead of the a line up of "the Best Of", I heard the local talk show hosts of the weekend show "Truth to Power" with Jeff Farias & Kyrsten Sinema. Kyrsten is State Representative of District 15 where the evacuees of Katrina are temporarily sheltered in the coliseum.
The first plane of Katrina's victims landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport 9/4/2005 and Arizona expects to eventually receive over 2500. Kyrsten was able to provide a first hand account of the status of the evacuees this morning. Many arrived with just the clothes they were wearing with no other possessions. The victims received their first shower in over a week but unfortunately they had to put on the same clothes they arrived in. Jeff and Kyrsten put out a call for new clothes and personal care items to be dropped off at the radio station and their listeners responded.
http://www.newstalk1010.net/
Boy did they respond!
Bags and boxes of goods started to arrive at KXXT 1010 Radio station as soon as the stores were open. The first 14ft U-haul truck delivered and the list changed as new needs were identified.
With gas at $3.30/gal, KXXT listeners from all over the valley drove to the Scottsdale drop off site with the needed items. The Radio station had a continuous line of cars with listeners dropping off bag after bag of clothing, personal care products, shoes, infant clothes, formula, children activity and school supplies.
Every donor was warmly received, generously thanked and many stayed to help. After a week of deep depression over Katrina and the botched recovery efforts, today was just what we all needed.
People of all color, age and economic status generously gave today. By 7:30 pm, we had filled the U-haul truck 4 times with new unused goods and collected over $3000. In addition the radio station conference room was chest deep in "gently" used goods, which will be distributed at a later date.
Here are some of the stories of the day:
A Scottsdale firefighter brought a 22-inch TV and then realized that without an antenna there would be no reception. He returned later with a set of rabbit ears, DVD player and a stack of children DVD's.
Men carried bag after bag of feminine care products that in any other time they wouldn't be caught dead buying.
A church from the Gila Reservation brought a pickup truck full of new quilts, adult and baby quilts hand made by their members.
A gentleman in his 70's drove up saying he had heard on the radio that the ladies at the coliseum needed underwear as he handed me a large bag full of new ladies panties of various sizes.
A member from one of the unions brought us the left over food from their Labor Day picnic where they passed the hat and collected $350.00.
A man came with his trunk full of men's clothes states he mother had been by earlier and called him to "get his butt over there" and drop off some men's clothes.
A family returned three times dropping off items. They stated that every time they finished a drop off, the list of needed items that was being broadcasted had changed so they went back to the store to fill that list.
The Target store across the street from the radio station was reported to have been cleaned out of diapers, baby items and feminine care products. After asking shoppers what was going on, an employee came to see for herself. She then proceeded to purchase a variety of items with her employee discount.