Helpfulness is all around us here in Brooklyn. It’s one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Yesterday I posted photos by Pastor Tom Martinez of Sandy relief volunteers at the Greenpoint Reformed Church in Brooklyn. Soon after I got an email from the Katie Couric Show. They saw the pix and wanted to know more about the grassroots relief efforts I’ve been hearing about in Brooklyn. That’s why I was asked to be a live blogger on Katie’s show during ABC’s Day of Giving.
Indeed, parts of Brooklyn were hard hit.
Nearby in Coney Island and Red Hook homes were lost, property damaged, and businesses devastated. Public housing in Red Hook and Gowanus have been without electricity, heat, water and elevator service since the storm.
Thankfully, people in ways large and small have spontaneously come together to help others.
Groups like Red Hook Initiative, which was primarily a youth center, have stepped in to coordinate volunteer efforts locally. In Park Slope, two shelters, at the Park Slope Armory and the John Jay High School Complex, were set up by the city. Congregation Beth Elohim and other group have been busy cooking and providing clothing and care for the evacuees from the Rockaways that arrived by the busload.
The Old Stone House in Park Slope, a museum and cultural center, is now a drop-off site for donations. Yesterday the House was filled to the gills with volunteers sorting through the dry goods, food, water and clothing that was contributed.
Pastor Ann Kanfield of Greenpoint Reformed Church is amazed by the “outpouring of good will and a real desire to help among New Yorkers, but also from the world at large.”
She writes in an email to me: “We’ve received monetary donations from friends across the country. One woman sent $20 when she only had $40 in her bank account, but she felt that she was grateful for what she had and she wanted to help those who needed it more than she did.”
On Friday an email was forwarded to me from a local woman, who was inviting friends and neighbors to cook a hot dish that she would drive over to Red Hook the next morning, providing a hot lunch for those in the Red Hook Houses.
According to Pastor Kanfield, people really want to do something but the hard part is not knowing what’s actually needed, and where it’s needed. “This is really a twofold issue: communication and distribution,” she writes. “We need to communicate the needs to people who want to help, and then we need the items distributed in ways that they can be used.”
To alleviate confusion and answer questions about relief efforts, City Councilmember Brad Lander and Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors have sent out sending out daily updates about the storm and the relief efforts which have kept locals informed.
Interestingly, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been incredibly effective in the coordination of volunteers and supplies. In Brooklyn, they’ve been coordinating services from St. Jacobi Evangelical Luteran Church in Sunset Park (5406 Fourth Avenue). “All those days out in Zucotti Park with no heat and electricity prepared them for times like this – they are experts in how to feed large numbers of people, how to run generators off vegetable oil and how to provide medical care to those in need,” Pastor Kanfield writes.
The number of volunteers who came out and continue to help with the recovery is overwhelming. “I’m exhausted, but it’s a good exhausted—the phone keeps ringing, the emails keep coming—people want to help. And I’m really thankful that our little church could play a role in enabling them to live out the command to “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” writes Pastor Kanfield.
Indeed.