My Dad is a fire Chaplain (he is the one I made my first quilt for) and he is an international director of a fire fighter organization. I just got a newletter from him and in it was an article about a fire station that had been leveled by hurrican Katrina. I think I need to help - but don't know exactly how I need to do that. I also quilt for a charity called firehouse quilts. They provide little 45 x 45 quilts to fire trucks/EMT vehicles to use for children. Do you think this MS firehouse could use those? Here is an excerpt from the article.
"I find this situation astonishing as we are a year and a half post-Katrina. An 8 yr old boy died from an auto accident on I-10 a few weeks ago as it took 40 minutes to get a neighboring fire dept to bring a Jaws of Like to extricate him. The West Hancock, MS Fire Dept needs assistance. ........The West Hancock Fire Rescue, a 100% Volunteer Fire Dept, is the first responder to 18 miles if Interstate 10 and responsible for the emergency response to an industrial port - Port Bienville, in Mississippi - in addition to handling a wide range of emergency calls that come in to assist the residents of both Pearlington and West Hancock County. Pearlington was Ground Zero for the Hurricane Katrinas landfall. The town and its residents lost 100% of there homes. The neighboring cities in Hancock county were also virtually wiped out, so they cannot help remedy this situation. "
" as of February 10th they have about 3 weeks fuel supply left. They are in basic need of everything, unfortuneatly they don't have the funds to fix anything. They have lost more than 60% of there equipment. Every department member lost their own home and struggle to juggle there paying jobs, rebuilding there own home, and responding to the needs of a community that has lost so much. "
They have been offered a grant match support - if they can raise $11,000 they can get an additional $110,000 for funding. I know I will be helping send them support - but I am wondering (Aloud and to my quilty friends who also understand this quilty desire) if sending them some small quilts could help? I know its not something I could do overnight, but could over the next few months get some small quilts made. I even have a queen size quilt that just needs binding - do you think they would like that as well??
I guess living in my little sheltered area of Colorado I assumed that the hurricane was over - people had fixed things up, and life went on. I knew there was extreme devastation - but again assumed that was over a year ago - it should be fixed now. Boy do I feel like a dummy!
Okay - I'll send some money and keep pondering on the quilts - they do have a website - I could email them and know for sure - but....then I am committed LOL ( the website is http://www.westhancockfirerescue.org ) And by reading that I think the main need is money, but I always think in quilts...how about you?
Thanks for letting me take a lot of your time - this issue concerns me.... and talking to myself is not always the most intelligent conversation!!
2 comments:
If they don't actually need quilts why not collect the quilts and auction them off on E-Bay or somewhere else to raise money to send to the fire department? Perhaps there is some way to contact other departments across the country to let them know about the auction and encourage participation?
Great idea. I was wondering about the auction idea as well. I would donate the quilt with that suggestion and perhaps they have a network that can make an auction happen!
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