"our" rescue worker responds...
Sep. 7th, 2005 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanThis was sent back via channels:
"If it’s true that so many people have been reading the reports from New Orleans, here’s one last thing I’d like to pass along to everyone:
Our teams are safely home in Florida. We drove through the night with the mission of being able to hug loved ones as quickly as reasonably possible. Prior to leaving Louisiana, we stopped at the biggest shelter in Baton Rouge to say goodbye to some of those we helped bring to safety. There are many people there who will never forget us, but there are far more people who we will never forget. Keeping only what we knew we would need for gas, we empted or wallets and purses, putting cash directly in the hands of people who literally have nothing. Think about that, for a minute. No home. No clothes. No check book. No car. No way to get to an ATM machine. No job. No school. No dignity and no privacy, as you sleep head to foot with 5500 other “No” people.
If you haven’t already given some kind of help to this horrific disaster relief effort, I can’t imagine what it is you’re waiting for. Prayers are great; these people need them. Bu they also need money and supplies. And they’re going to need it from you more than once. This whole situation isn’t going away tomorrow. These people are going to need help for a long time.
I know what you’re thinking… “I want to help but money’s tight for my own family.” I can relate to that in more ways than most of you reading this can ever imagine. At the end of my month, there is very little left over. But here’s what I have decided to do at my home so that it will be possible to help every month for as long as there is a need. I’m going to downgrade my cable service from the package I have now to the basic package. The $24.00 I save each month will go the Gulf Coast. I am going to switch my cell phone plan to a plan with fewer features (that I don’t use anyway). The $7.99 I save each month will go the Gulf Coast. I’m going to stop “girl’s night out” at the movie theater one time per month and have the girls over to watch a DVD instead. The $17.00 I save each month on a ticket and popcorn and a drink (who needs the calories anyway?) will go the Gulf Coast. Those three things alone will allow me to send $48.99 (I’ll round up to $50.00) EACH MONTH to the people who need it way more than I do. And you know what, after month one, I won’t even no that I’m missing anything at home. Can you imagine what fifty bucks from each of us every single month would mean to the “no” people in the Gulf States?
Also, my twelve year old son, who is quite spoiled, if I do say so myself, is going to have to get by with a few less Christmas presents this year than he has been used to in years past. Imagine what Christmas and Chanukah are going to be like for so many children this year. No tree, no stockings, no presents. Yeah… I know. That’s not what Christmas is really about. Go tell that to a homeless 5 years old and get back to me.
I guess what I’m saying is that I hope that while you have been reading my communication from New Orleans, you have come to see what it is that we were trying to do there was only a start. Saving the life of a family from a rooftop of a flooded home is a job that only the professionals can do. Restoring a life for those same people is something that any of us can do.
Please… really, I beg of you… dig deep within your very souls and find a way to help. Make a sacrifice. Do something outside of your normal comfort zone. I promise you that you will be a different and a better person for it. I promise.
Thank you for all of the “thank yous” that you guys have sent to me and to the guys I was with on this relief trip. I will make sure that every message of thanks I receive is passed on to each and every member of our teams. Your words of encouragement mean more than you will ever know.
"If it’s true that so many people have been reading the reports from New Orleans, here’s one last thing I’d like to pass along to everyone:
Our teams are safely home in Florida. We drove through the night with the mission of being able to hug loved ones as quickly as reasonably possible. Prior to leaving Louisiana, we stopped at the biggest shelter in Baton Rouge to say goodbye to some of those we helped bring to safety. There are many people there who will never forget us, but there are far more people who we will never forget. Keeping only what we knew we would need for gas, we empted or wallets and purses, putting cash directly in the hands of people who literally have nothing. Think about that, for a minute. No home. No clothes. No check book. No car. No way to get to an ATM machine. No job. No school. No dignity and no privacy, as you sleep head to foot with 5500 other “No” people.
If you haven’t already given some kind of help to this horrific disaster relief effort, I can’t imagine what it is you’re waiting for. Prayers are great; these people need them. Bu they also need money and supplies. And they’re going to need it from you more than once. This whole situation isn’t going away tomorrow. These people are going to need help for a long time.
I know what you’re thinking… “I want to help but money’s tight for my own family.” I can relate to that in more ways than most of you reading this can ever imagine. At the end of my month, there is very little left over. But here’s what I have decided to do at my home so that it will be possible to help every month for as long as there is a need. I’m going to downgrade my cable service from the package I have now to the basic package. The $24.00 I save each month will go the Gulf Coast. I am going to switch my cell phone plan to a plan with fewer features (that I don’t use anyway). The $7.99 I save each month will go the Gulf Coast. I’m going to stop “girl’s night out” at the movie theater one time per month and have the girls over to watch a DVD instead. The $17.00 I save each month on a ticket and popcorn and a drink (who needs the calories anyway?) will go the Gulf Coast. Those three things alone will allow me to send $48.99 (I’ll round up to $50.00) EACH MONTH to the people who need it way more than I do. And you know what, after month one, I won’t even no that I’m missing anything at home. Can you imagine what fifty bucks from each of us every single month would mean to the “no” people in the Gulf States?
Also, my twelve year old son, who is quite spoiled, if I do say so myself, is going to have to get by with a few less Christmas presents this year than he has been used to in years past. Imagine what Christmas and Chanukah are going to be like for so many children this year. No tree, no stockings, no presents. Yeah… I know. That’s not what Christmas is really about. Go tell that to a homeless 5 years old and get back to me.
I guess what I’m saying is that I hope that while you have been reading my communication from New Orleans, you have come to see what it is that we were trying to do there was only a start. Saving the life of a family from a rooftop of a flooded home is a job that only the professionals can do. Restoring a life for those same people is something that any of us can do.
Please… really, I beg of you… dig deep within your very souls and find a way to help. Make a sacrifice. Do something outside of your normal comfort zone. I promise you that you will be a different and a better person for it. I promise.
Thank you for all of the “thank yous” that you guys have sent to me and to the guys I was with on this relief trip. I will make sure that every message of thanks I receive is passed on to each and every member of our teams. Your words of encouragement mean more than you will ever know.
