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 Holabird AdvocateProviding all the news we see fit to print since 2002!Saturday, September 10, 2005 VOL. IV Issue 9H After Katrina Part 3- The Relief Effort Friday and Saturday Morning by Barnabas J. Nemec Special to The Holabird Advocate As Having decided to spend Friday, the 2nd of September, 2005 trying to help with the relief effort underway in Houston, I spent the morning checking in at work, and letting people know what I’d be doing that afternoon. When noon rolled around I left early and went to the Dollar Store, where I got a bunch of canned goods, some playing cards, and whatever else caught my eye, trying to think of what people would need. After spending what cash I had on me, I headed to the Astrodome to try and volunteer. Arriving at the Astrodome, I found traffic at the only entrance in use at a near standstill. By the time I made it to the front of the line, the officer there told me they weren’t taking any donations. He went on to say I should drop off my donations at one of the local food pantries. I was a bit turned off by his news, because at this point I’d thoroughly convinced myself how kind, generous and useful I was by taking the time, money, and effort to help. The food pantries are just places where any qualifying poor person can go to get free food. Not wanting to waste gas finding one of the Houston food pantries, I suddenly realized I’m poor, so I just took my food home. The Astrodome refusing my canned food confused me, but later things started to make complete sense. After arriving back at my apartment complex, I ran into the former Bourbon Street pub owner. We conversed a bit, and he mentioned how glad he was he wasn’t still in New Orleans. Once I entered the blessed air-conditioned apartment I’m currently calling home, I tuned into the news on television. It wasn’t long before the Astrodome made it’s way onto the screen. Soon reporters were making comments about the difficulty people were having with making donations. These difficulties included confusions not only on how to donate, but where and what to donate as well. At one point it was said needed items included women’s summertime clothes, clean underwear, and other articles such as these. This got me thinking “outside the box”, so to speak. You see, if 1 in 10 Houstonians is considered “generous”, and a “generous” person donates 10 cans of Hormel Chili, then it’s simple math coming to the conclusion that there could potentially be a pile of 4 million cans of Hormel Chili sitting somewhere in the vicinity of the Astrodome. Keep in mind the Astrodome was, (and probably still is), housing about 20,000 refugees. If the Hormel Chili mountain really did exist, this implies that every man, woman, and child refugee would be the proud owner of 200 cans of Hormel Chili. Never mind the fact they may be shoeless and wearing the underwear they put on a week ago, there’s plenty of Hormel Chili to go around, so things can’t be that bad. All sarcasm aside, I decided to come up with a new game-plan when Saturday rolled around. On Saturday morning, the 6th of September, Terri, a friend of mine, and I decided we’d devote the day to helping out with the relief effort, despite any obstacles we may encounter. I’d told her of my experiences the day before. Then she mentioned the latest news: The George R Brown Convention Center was not only going to start taking in refugees that day, but was taking any and all donations people may have. We put on our thinking caps and returned to the Dollar Store. We figured standard donations from individuals, the Red Cross, and FEMA aid would have food covered. Other people at the Dollar Store were buying out the bottled water, so we decided to focus on things like underwear, hygiene accessories, miscellaneous toys and candy for children who lost everything. We loaded down with as much as we could reasonably afford and headed downtown to the GR Brown Convention Center. As we pulled up, we noticed Greyhound busses with disembarking refugees already there. Once we found a parking spot, we trekked to the center to find volunteers with and without donations manifesting in a staging area to one side of the building, and refugees entering through one of the main entrances. I would’ve followed the general guidelines people were going by, but Terri had become quite excited and emotional at this point and simply had to meet and hand out our bounty to refugees as they got off the buses. We entered through one of the Main entrances and began a day of work I won’t forget anytime soon. Part 4-The Relief Effort-Saturday Morning/Afternoon A Once Terri and I entered the GR Brown Convention Center, we noticed the thousands of inflatable mattresses and cots being set up. Very few refugees were in the building at this point, and most that were entering and immediately going through a registration/orientation/medical check. There were a few done with this process, and were resting on the mattresses. We approached a small resting family and offered toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap. They gladly accepted, and as soon as they did, a few dozen children entered and headed to the processing line. We stopped them and offered them candy and toys. This caused a bit of excitement, as they were only too happy to take what we had to give. This is exactly what Terri wanted to do, help them as soon as they exited the bus, and I must admit, there was a bit of satisfaction in doing this. Soon, though, I decided to head to the wing of the convention center were most volunteers were working, where the standard donations were being staged. Terri decided to stay in the main portion of the building until she finished handing out our gifts. In the “staging wing” there was already every conceivable donation you could possibly imagine. There was an area filled nothing but clothes, including 10’s of thousands of shoes, pants, shirts and underwear, all being organized by volunteers according to gender and size. There were all sorts of hygiene gear, much of which was packed in crate-form as if donated directly from the factory. There was an area filled with nothing but food, water and other drinks. (There were piles of bottled water throughout the building, for that matter.) There was an area that included a mountain of toys, stuffed animals, books, magazines, and even a couple of hundred baby-strollers in the corner. There seemed to be plenty of help in this area, so I went back into main area, this time near the back of the room. In this portion of the building, people were finishing off setting up the beds and cots with appropriate bedding. I helped with this for a while, making beds for refugees. At one point we ran completely out of pillows and were stuffing pillowcases with sheets to compensate. I soon noticed that this was how the whole effort seemed to be going. Complete excess of some things, and a complete lack of the one thing you didn’t think of. (There may have even been a broadcast stating that the GR Brown Convention Center needed bedding for the cots and air mattresses, and within hours countless people showed up with their extra sheets and blankets, very few remembered pillows. If there had been another broadcast concerning pillows, we would’ve soon had 2+ pillows for everyone.) Soon I tired of making beds, and decided to help a man pushing a giant trolley filled with miscellaneous items. He was headed for the third floor, were an “activity center was being put together. The 2 of us, and several others doing the same, road a freight elevator up with our deliveries. We unloaded in a central area where another makeshift “team” was sorting everything by age and “style”. Toddlers toys here, board games/cards/jigsaw puzzles there, and reading material over there, etc. After unloading our trolley, we returned downstairs for another load. I did this for a few hours with various volunteers, and soon I became a “library specialist”, sorting out books and magazines and hauling them upstairs to an area where reading material of every imaginable kind was being shelved on bookcases I imagine were donated as well. About this time Terri called to ask what I was doing. After I told her, she stated she was done giving goodies on an individual basis, and being a spiritual person, was now praying with whatever newly arriving refugees wanted to. It was after noon at this point, and we decided to meet for lunch in the upstairs area, where there was prepared food for volunteers to enjoy. The line wasn’t too bad, and we ended up eating next to a medical doctor who was turned away from the medical area because of an excess number of MD’s who were volunteering. After eating I continued with my book/library work and Terri went to the clothing area, which by this time was being patronized by a substantial number of refugees. By the time 5:00 rolled around Terri called again. At this time the library had a complete set of Harry Potter books, several decades worth of National Geographic magazine, and a couple hundred Bibles. We were both getting tired and decided to break for the day. That evening another friend of mine from Sugarland, (a Houston suburb), called and asked if I was interested in going to GR Brown Convention Center to help the following day. I agreed. Andy Griffith Donates Collection To UNC Singer and Television Star Andy Griffith has donate manuscripts, television and film footage and other memorabilia documenting his 55-year career to his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A native of Mount Airy, Griffith is best known for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor on "The Andy Griffith Show."He earned a bachelor's degree in music from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1949. Griffith's personal collection will become part of UNC's Southern Historical Collection, which contains more than 15 million items in 4,900 collections, the school said. Materials in Griffith's personal collection currently are scattered in locations including Griffith's home in California, according to the University. Among those things is an original recording of the theme to "The Andy Griffith Show" with the words (yes, there were words) sung by Griffith. The Holabird Advocate has a copy of the original recording that will be pat of a future audio blogcast of "The Jerry Hinkle Program". Publishers Notes by Jerry Hinkle Barney Nemec's articles in the last edition of the Holabird Advocate are going over in a big way. Barbara Nemec has suggested that I arrange for the Highmore Herald to reprint what he has done. She also to wanted me to tell Barney to keep it up. I did, and he said he will. He is working on Parts 5 and 6 which will be published by Monday at the earliest. Barney has also consented to have the Herald reprint his articles, but to make sure I get some credit, which is generous. What I have published thus far has been edited slightly. Perhaps Mary Ann at the paper will be more true to the original.
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