The word was that another truckload of donations and supplies were due to arrive in Bay Saint Louis this morning from MinnesotaHelpers. Some would be dropped off in Bay Saint Louis and the rest would make the trip all the way to Ocean Springs. It would be our task to help sort through a load of over 100 pairs of shoes and match them to families who have expressed a need for shoes...
Other than Yvonne's screaming two-year old serenade for most of the trip -- it was relatively uneventful. We passed the new usual landmarks.. Including this encampment set up at a local church in Ocean Springs for volunteers and supplies:
Maybe it was the time of day - or maybe some debris has been cleared allowing us to see - but despite our numerous trips to the area, today we noticed the extent of destruction right around the corner from Operation Vanessa HQ for the first time.
You have to sort of squint but you can see the totally gutted-out house in the background and a huge mound of debris out front. I wonder too whether or not anything used to stand on the slab where the FEMA trailer now resides....
But back to the shoes and the task at hand... We arrived to find that the garage was once again stacked to the ceiling with supplies and donations! To the ceiling! We got to meet Ken & Brenda from Minnesota - who had so generously donated their time to make the long trip down with a trailer load of goods. Great people whom we felt we've known all our lives. I hope that we somehow get to know them for the rest of our lives, at least. How great it would be - to form lasting friendships with all of the amazing people we have met...
When we finally wandered out into the garage we quickly realized that there is just too much stuff in too small a place to get to everything. There would be no way to find the items to match the lists given to us by needy families... After a bit of brainstorming, we realized that if there was one thing that our family has an abundance of right now -- that is empty space... So we have volunteered to rent a truck this week and transport some of the load at Ocean Springs to our home in Pascagoula. We have at least three mostly empty rooms where we would be able to store and sort items and would be glad to swing open our doors to anyone who could come by either to volunteer or in search of needed items.
We need to finalize plans with Art & Mary Gray and then we'll set off in search of a good-sized rental truck. Stay tuned for progress.
Related posts:
http://vasavana.blogspot.com/2005/12/operation-vanessa-part-i.html
http://vasavana.blogspot.com/2005/12/operation-vanessa-part-ii.html
http://vasavana.blogspot.com/2005/12/operation-vanessa-part-iii.html
http://vasavana.blogspot.com/2005/12/christmas-eve.html
No comments:
Post a Comment