We stopped at the Houston Food Bank yesterday so the 5 year old could give the money from her piggy bank and we could deliver the $400 collected from friends and family in the DFW area. There were hordes of volunteers showing up, it was WONDERFUL to see, please keep giving your time, they will need it more and more as volunteers begin to drop off because of work and family commitments. Per the office, they will continue to need financial contributions to purchase baby formula as that is one of the scarcest commodities.
PLEASE adopt a shelter...if not with your time, with your money. We got to Galveston and there are folks on every corner, families with their pets, not enough to go around. I cried for an hour when I saw the girl with her dog...you just don't think about those things. We spent half a day today just organizing and sorting at the shelter all the clothes. So many wonderful people brought in clothes but they are so short on volunteers, there had been no one to sort them in gender and size. They were so grateful to go "shopping" today for clothes. One lady passed out and they had to call in a paramedic...she was overwhelmed with the idea that she would have more than what she was wearing on her back. We adopted a family and bought school uniforms for a boy and girl so they could enroll in school this week. Moms were crying every where because most of them have no access to cash, much less the ability to send kids to school in uniforms.
The mom we met was overjoyed, not because of our contribution, but because she found her mother, via phone, still stranded in New Orleans. She has decided to drive down to try to rescue her. I am worried for her. Her mom reports that they are being given one bottle of water a day, two bottles less than the dismal amount our troops were getting in the heat of the Iraqi summer. Is one bottle of water enough to survive on? There is fighting, people are dying on the streets...we have treated these people like cattle but are surprised when they act like animals. It's heartbreaking.
If you don't have a shelter near you to adopt, please consider supporting this one in Galveston:
Moody Methodist Church
2803 53rd Street
Galveston, TX 77551
They need $$$ to fund children's programs and baby items. The Astrodome has been assigned a zip code as well, Houston, TX 77230 if you have any companies near you that would send large numbers of items. They are accepting donations via drive up outside there and the Reliant Center. They need bottled water and baby items!
Today is my birthday. I would not have spent it any other way... Now I will get up in the morning to head home and find another one to work in this week, please do the same wherever you are!