[Northkeep] Hurricane Katrina

[Gary Anderson]

Greetings to the list,
 
After spending the majority of the last 2 days volunteering at the ARC offices & answering calls, I can tell you what they are requesting the most of (which most probably already know) - money, blood & time.  They are not taking the donations of material items there - but are working with other organizations to get those things collected.  Those organizations are:  Feed the Children, the Armory in Broken Arrow, Catholic Charities, Salvation Army (don't call the 800 # for them, they will tell you they are only taking money, so I was told to today by a caller, call the local number) and Neighbor for Neighbor was another one I was told of today.  Toiletry items are in demand right now as well as other things.  And even though I haven't heard it requested, I imagine prepaid phone cards can be put to use in the near future for those needing to reach family out of state.
 
If you want another way to help out & you don't want to go through the ARC & the paper work required to volunteer - I'd suggest calling one of the organizations taking the material collections to see if they need help manning a donation location or sorting & loading the stuff that's been donated.  Also, keep in mind that the need for help is going to continue for a long while, so taking the time to plan something to raise funds (garage sale, etc) that would also be of benefit would not be a bad idea.
 
The above is only a suggestion for wherever you may choose to donate what you can (be it the ARC or to the SCA directed operations currently going on).  Just my 2 cents though, take it as you will.
 
Regards,
Brigid

Marc Carlson <marccarlson20 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>From: "Rick Drake" 
>I have been trying to think of the best way to do something helpful in the 
>Barony...

If I may, I think we should note that there are two separate concerns here. 
Helping out everyone in the damaged areas and helping out a special interest 
group get back on its feet.
The first is really more important, although the second can provide what is 
probably very much needed moral (and morale) support.

Do deal with the former, unless we as a group want to hold a fund raiser 
demo or something to make money to give to the ARC or one of the other 
established charitable organizations out there. The Red Cross seems to have 
taken the societal propensity to just throw money at problems and turned it 
into something effective. Other things, like food drives, and such are 
apparently less useful than buying what's actually needed rather than what 
people can spare.

My suggestion (and preference) is to deal with with the ARC (or whoever) as 
individuals, rather than as a group. This is because of one of those 
personality glitches I have from how I was raised: When charity is given 
public, the attention is on the giver, not the recipient. When it is given 
privately, the attention doesn't leave the recipient which is where it 
belongs.

Ok, that being said, looking at helping out the local SCA group is a really 
nice idea, but it may require waiting until people actually know what is 
needed before we can do anything.
For example, according to the radio this morning, we have over 50 new 
families here in Tulsa who may _never_ get to go home. Odds are that none 
of them are in the SCA, but you can be pretty sure that there are SCA people 
in that same situation somewhere.

That sort of thing should probably be done as a group, in conjunction with 
other groups, to better coordinate who gets what.(and by joining the SCA as 
a whole as one of those established and reputable organizations, again 
attention is not diverted from the people who really need the help).

-----------------
Ok, if you are just wanting to have the the SCA get some positive attention 
in the local area, have someone contact the Red Cross and see if you can 
arrange volunteer times for people to sign up for in the name of the local 
SCA. Neither Talana and I are allowed to give blood any more, but perhaps 
an SCA sponsored blood drive in a few weeks?

Marc/Diarmaid


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