... but I have been enormously moved by our state's hospitality in the last week. It's made me proud to live here. My neighborhood alone has donated several carloads of items to evacuees staying at hotels nearby (we're now organizing a dinner for 150 of them early next week), and you can't swing a cat without hitting a church group that's adopted an entire shelter or hotel.
But the person who's moved me the most, by far, is our friend Melody Townsel. She has become a one-woman Katrina relief agency. In addition to the facts related in today's Dallas Morning News (below), she is also hosting a baby shower this weekend for a family who evacuated here and is going to have a new member next week (via c-section). The family recently learned that their house, as of yesterday, still sat under 20 feet of water, and they are quite literally living off the kindness of strangers now.
Fortunately, Dallas, the city I've spent most of my life deriding and wishing I didn't live in, is a city full of kind strangers.
Here's an excerpt from today's Dallas Morning News:
It didn't take long for Hurricane Katrina to spawn a tornado named Melody.
And Vikki Espinosa, a New Orleans native who calls north Oak Cliff home, couldn't be more grateful.
Melody Townsel called her friend, Ms. Espinosa, the night of Aug. 28 - before anyone could even imagine Katrina's devastation - and offered help to her family.
By Tuesday, when word came that nine of Ms. Espinosa's relatives would be among the stream of evacuees to Dallas, including her parents and 86-year-old grandmother, Ms. Townsel became a whirlwind of action.
"Melody has become command central for helping people," said Ms. Espinosa, 36, a nine-year resident of Oak Cliff. "Both of my phones rang constantly last week when people found out my family was coming. I came in one morning and found eight bags of clothing with a note saying, 'God bless your family.' "
...
By Tuesday, they had collected more than $3,000 worth of gift cards to stores such as Target and Wal-Mart, secured housing for the nine relatives and obtained school uniforms for Ms. Espinosa's 8-year-old nephew, who began classes Tuesday at Rosemont Elementary. With a lead from another friend, Dennis Teague, they found another house for three more relatives arriving later this week.
Now that Ms. Espinosa's family needs are mostly satisfied, Ms. Townsel has kept swirling. She's directing food and other supplies to Tyler Street United Methodist Church in Oak Cliff, which has nine evacuees and could take in about 30 more. On Tuesday, Ms. Townsel said she also was helping a Baton Rouge nursing student find housing in Dallas.
"It's just sort of taken on a life of its own," she said of her charity efforts. "But it's a good life."