Volunteering

[Marklar MM]

Many of them are going with relatives in other parts of the country or nearby. FEMA was going to distrubte debit cards to each adult with 2k on them today however.

You sure it is each adult. I thought it was 1 per family.

[Spurfect]

You sure it is each adult. I thought it was 1 per family.

It is per "Head of Household" and it can be from anywhere between $665 to $2,500

[MannyIsGod]

Already answered.

Congrats on the job, btw!

[Spurfect]

Already answered.

Congrats on the job, btw!

Thanks :)

[Summers]

Hey y'all I have a question--

My husband belogns to a fraternity at SWT and each frat member is required to fulfill a certain number of volunteer hours each semester as part of his membership. Last year, my husband served hot dogs at a little league tournament, which is not the most gratifying way to spend a weekend, let me tell you.

So, he said if someone could give him a contact number where they'd be needed, he could probably organize the whole fraternity to carpool on a weekend and do whatever. Any ideas?

Edited to say I guess they would just need to call the numbers already posted here, yes? I guess I was more after some ideas about what y'all thought about where a large group of people would be needed most. Don't mean to seem daft. :)

[SpursWoman]

Hey y'all I have a question--

My husband belogns to a fraternity at SWT and each frat member is required to fulfill a certain number of volunteer hours each semester as part of his membership. Last year, my husband served hot dogs at a little league tournament, which is not the most gratifying way to spend a weekend, let me tell you.

So, he said if someone could give him a contact number where they'd be needed, he could probably organize the whole fraternity to carpool on a weekend and do whatever. Any ideas?

Edited to say I guess they would just need to call the numbers already posted here, yes? I guess I was more after some ideas about what y'all thought about where a large group of people would be needed most. Don't mean to seem daft. :)

Check the previous pages in this thread....there are quite a few specific people/places to contact. :)

[Kori Ellis]

Summers, this page has a lot of info in one place.

http://woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=2591869D-F08E-42A2-B4EB-90960FC2C71C

[MannyIsGod]

Summer,

A large group of guys would work very well here:



Salvation Army- Go to the Kelly USA Buildings 1536 and 171 at 809 Davy Crockett Rd (which is really on Sam Houston Rd. - follow the signs once you get on Kelly). They need your help sorting donations in the warehouse from 8am to 8pm. Other volunteers are needed including picking up donations, call Kathy Thompkins at 352-2000.

The Food Bank is receiving a tremendous quantity of food. They need help sorting it. You can volunteer this week from 9am-9pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday at 43 11 Director Dr. near WW White and I-10. To learn next week's schedule, feel free to call 337-3663.

Either of those places would be the best places to go, IMO. You can also call the Red Cross to see if they need help.

[Summers]

Cool, thank y'all so much. I'll pass along the info to my husband, and he'll bring it up with his frat.

[MannyIsGod]

I just decided to post my last blog entry here instead of making a whole new one...

http://mexiricanvertwo.blogspot.com/


Volunteering In Post Katrina Shelters



San Antonio has opened its arms to thousands of people fleeing Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Today, Jessica and I went to 2 of the shelters and a Salvation Army warehouse to join the volunteer efforts. The range of emotions you feel as you are immersed within the results of the disaster are limitless.

We began the day by donating some books and offering our services at the Salvation Army collection center at Kelly USA.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/913758/savarmwh.jpg

The amount of people donating both time and items was rather uplifting. There has been no shortage of generosity. The line we had to wait in simply to find a parking space or pull through the "drive thru" setup was rather long.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/913758/outside2.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/913758/outside.jpg

Although the scene inside is at first very much describable as chaotic, you soon realize that there is an order to the chaos. There was no lack of effort in a warehouse who's temperture was no lower than 100 degrees.

After helping load palates of various foods and sorting through hygienic products, we headed over to our initial destination; Kelly USA's Red Cross center. We arrived, signed up, proceeded to the volunteer center where we underwent the standard orientation.

To get to the orientation room, you walk through the first shelter setup in San Antonio. It is basically an office building that used to be cubicle heaven transformed into a never ending sea of cots.

The people look absolutely shell shocked. While there are signs of many people trying to get along as normally as possible, there are also an alarming number of people that seem on edge. You cannot miss seeing people break down. Thankfully, for every person you see in tears, there is always a volunteer with them offering them as much support as possible.

Through the orientation, you are told to try to maintain distance from emotional involvement for your own good. Then you are told they realize this is going to be impossible for you to do. As the instructor was telling us the rules, he was telling us just how he had broken them the day before. Humanity rises above the rules of any situation, and this is simply an example of that in action.

We were then told that volunteers were needed at the city's newest shelter at the now defunct Windsor Park Mall. As we drove out of Kelly USA, we noticed what could only have been some form of a tent city being erected and set up. Whether those tents were going to be used to house refugee's or simply assist them, it was impossible for us to know.

Upon arriving at Windsor Park Mall, we were immediately put to work registering the new arivals. They were being bused from Kelly USA as they were being brought in aboard military transports and commercial airlines.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/913758/windsor1.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/913758/windsor2.jpg

As we were directing people to the appropriate locations, I was asked to help four Asian men. For all they had been through, it amazed me how high their spirits were. A fellow volunteer who spoke their language soon began to translate, and I discovered they were all from a catholic parish and one of the men was their priest.

Later, when I was heading back to the "command center", I stumbled across one of the men, and he excitedly held up 4 blankets in his possession and announced, "Look! I got 4 blankets!" He had the biggest grin and although he was missing several teeth it had to be the best smile I saw all day. It was awesome. Something we take for granted, blankets, was something that had brought him incredible joy. It helps put things in perspective like you would not believe.

Later, I was asked to show a small boy carrying his younger brother to the showers. I took the boy's brother and asked their names and age. Charles, age 9, was trying to get his younger brother - Ivan, age 2 - to the showers in order to bathe him. He was also trying to find them both some new clothes to change into.

I have never seen a 2 year old so exhausted. It broke my heart to see the fatigue in a child that young. As many have said, this should not happen anywhere, much less in this country.

I walked with him while carrying Ivan to the showers and learned they were from New Orleans and were at the shelter with their grandmother, aunt, and some cousins. I didn't ask where his parents were. I was too afraid of the possible answers.

With the help of some paramedic and volunteers, we located some clothes that fit the young boys. unfortunately, Charles would not be allowed to bathe Ivan because they were both too young. We located their aunt, and gave her the clothes for Ivan and explained the situation to her. She said she would take care of it. I then took Charles back to the showers to search for more clothes.

We had a hard time finding him socks and underwear. It turns out those are probably the 2 most sought after clothing commodities in disaster relief situations. Once again, something we all take for granted. When is the last time I put on a pair of clean socks and felt thankful?

We were unable to find him some sandals or slippers which he dearly wanted. It broke my heart to not be able to provide such a simple thing to this poor child even after all he had been through, and how far he had come. I hope in the coming days, Charles gets his slippers.

By the time we found him all the clothes he needed, the fire department had closed down the showers while they relocated them. They were using fire trucks in an effort to give them temporary shower facilities while more 'permanent' showers were put into place.

I left Charles with some other volunteers at that point. I was both amazed and heartbroken by this child.
If anyone cares, I think NBC is going to run a story about that Charles, the little boy I helped. I just watched the lead in and I swear it was him on there.

[MannyIsGod]

Turns out it was him on NBC. He was at the convention center in New Orleans when NBC initaly interviewed him. He was wearing the same Sponge Bob shirt I saw him in the Sunday he arrived in San Antonio.

He is staying with an Aunt and Uncle now, and they have six kids of their own. They didn't mention if his little brother Ivan was with him.

The saddest part of the segment, was when they mentoined that his aunt died after they arrived here. They didn't mention his parents at all, except to say that his grandmother has raised him his entire life.

Charles wrote his aunt's obituary without even being asked. The child is nine. His uncle broke down while talking about it on TV. It really breaks my heart to see a child coping with so much in such an adult manner. It's beyond sad; way beyond.

[Kori Ellis]

The saddest part of the segment, was when they mentoined that his aunt died after they arrived here. They didn't mention his parents at all, except to say that his grandmother has raised him his entire life.

Charles wrote his aunt's obituary without even being asked. It really breaks my heart to see a child coping with so much in such an adult manner. It's beyond sad; way beyond.

:cry That's super sad Manny.

[MannyIsGod]

Damn! Charles has gone big time! He was apparently at the Emmys. He's going to be on Inside Edition in a second.

[MannyIsGod]

Someone emailed me this:



Storm-tossed child
# Katrina made 9-year-old Charles Evans an evacuee. The media made him a star.

By Gina Piccalo, Times Staff Writer

BEFORE he stood beaming onstage at the Emmys, before his "Today" interview with Katie Couric, before people were calling him a "superstar," 9-year-old Charles Evans was just a kid from New Orleans' 9th Ward made precocious and wise by his hard-knock life.

Then, on Sept. 2, he appeared on NBC's "Nightly News" standing amid the post-Katrina garbage outside the New Orleans Convention Center, wearing a dirty SpongeBob SquarePants T-shirt, speaking directly to the camera, his face pressed close, a slight lisp evident, his assessment heartbreakingly articulate, delivered with adult poise, even a touch of showmanship.

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"We just need some help out here," he said. "It is just so pitiful. Pitiful! And a shame…. We have over 3,000 people out here with no home, no shelter. What are they gonna do? What we gonna do? Take a look at all of this. Now what they gonna do if the hurricane come again?"

In that moment, Hurricane Katrina's littlest media star was born. His child's-eye view distilled the overwhelming nature of the event down to the fate of one soul. He became the innocent on whom viewers could project their grief. Soon Charles' plight was the topic of Internet chatter. Worried strangers bombarded the network with requests for details on Charles' whereabouts.

Naturally, Hollywood recognized this raw talent. He was a traumatized boy, yes, but such a natural on camera! It was a story balanced precariously on the precipice of exploitation, the kind that might thrill the nation for a few weeks, then disappear, leaving its subject to get on with his life with not much more than some disorienting memories.

Before you knew it, Charles was booked to appear at the Emmys. On Sunday night, he stood alongside child actor Tyler James Williams, wearing a new suit and an ear-to-ear grin. After the show, it seemed everybody knew Charles — Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry and the whole cast of "Desperate Housewives." When they went to hug the little boy, Charles surprised them with a kiss.

By Monday, reporters were calling Charles' Los Angeles hotel room. They even bothered the transportation company that shuttled him and his family around town during his 24-hour stay.

His cousins Kevin and Valetta Morrow, who are hosting Charles at their home in Mesquite, Texas, were overwhelmed by all the attention at a time when their family was facing a major crisis. They began asking for compensation for interviews, money they needed to help care for Charles and the dozen or so other relatives they were housing along with their own six kids. There were more than 50 others scattered across the country, Kevin Morrow said, who needed help too. Meanwhile, they were scrambling to find a liaison, someone to help manage the frenzy of media requests.

"Being exposed on the Emmys," Kevin Morrow said, "that just opened up the doors for a whole other entity, a whole other level. [The family] started out as evacuees, and now the stage has turned with all the media attention. A lot of people are telling him he's talented. They want to adopt him. The whole table has turned."

Indeed, Charles himself is struggling to put this adventure in some kind of perspective. He vacillates between lost little boy and clever kid from the projects. On Monday morning, as he awaited his flight back to Texas, he answered a reporter's call by asking for a last name and media affiliation.

"Didn't you see me?" he asked. "I've been on TV all the time."

But when the questions came, he decided to converse in gibberish, insisting he didn't speak English, only Spanish, French and "Indian tribe."

"He's eating it up," Kevin Morrow said. "He never gets full."

Charles didn't know his parents. His 76-year-old great-grandmother, Ophelia Evans, raised him from infancy. Over time, Charles has grown to be her caretaker too, giving Ophelia insulin shots. After the hurricane, he foraged for food for her as well as for his extended family. When his great-aunt, Kevin Morrow's mother, died en route to Texas from the sidewalk they shared outside the New Orleans Convention Center, Charles wrote an obituary for the elderly woman.

"I will always remember her sweet and gentle face," he wrote.

Campbell Brown, co-anchor of NBC's "Weekend Today," discovered Charles on Sept. 2, after Charles had spent all week camped on an unshaded stretch of sidewalk. He was hungry, she said, but his main priority was finding food for Ophelia and the younger kids in his family. Brown choked back tears as she recalled that day.

"He walked me around and described very matter-of-factly the horrible things he had seen," she said in a phone interview. "The people screaming and crying for help … pointing out people who had died and their bodies had been left there for days. The whole time, he somehow still had this wonderful innocence and openness about him. I don't know how he has maintained that, given what he's been through. It broke my heart."

During the week that followed, Charles and his family were evacuated by helicopter to a mall in San Antonio. Then, a few days later, they moved in with the Morrows and their six children.

Around the same time, thousands of TV viewers started bombarding NBC with offers of help for Charles. The network established the Charles Evans Fund and Evans & Morrow Family Fund with Bank of America and set up an e-mail address for them: charlesevans009@sbcglo bal.net.

Charles and his great-grandmother were booked on the "Today" show, undoubtedly in anticipation of a pint-sized performer and a lively interview with Katie Couric. In fact, Couric introduced Charles, bragging about his articulate nature. Instead, America saw the child side of Charles, a little boy who, outside the comfort zone of his family, was just like any other 9-year-old — shy and overwhelmed under the harsh spotlight of national media. Couric got only monosyllabic answers from Charles.