Hi Betty,

I'm here (Houston). After 2 days, I am EXHAUSTED! But, the people are what's keeping everyone going and going. You should be so proud of what your town is doing! It's so heartwarming to see how many thousands of volunteers there are...... The best part is receiving hugs & "thank yous" from the evacuees. They break my heart-try to give them any grain of hope. I'll be at the Reliant Park tomorrow & Monday, then over to the George R. Brown Convention Center Tues thru Fri. I come home and fall into bed. Wed. I go in at 4 a.m.
Looking forward to seeing you -
Michele
of Michele & Don

Oh Michele - you are one great gal!!!!!

You are a very special woman, Michele!

Michele, we're thinking of you and all the volunteers.

Michele,
God bless you and all the others that are doing what they can there, to help those people.

Betty

You are our hero Betty.. I want to go but I know I am needed at our home right now.. but if you find out how we all can open our homes to folks perhaps we can all help ..

Claudia: I think you mean Michele is our hero - not that Betty isn't my hero too!!!

I am no hero, believe me.
I only know about the groups that are looking to house people in Houston. A neighbor owns an apartment bldg with 3 empty units right now & she is letting families move in there.
There must be local red cross chapters, churches or something where ever you live that can tell you how to help - no matter where you live. Our local realtors assciation is also matching people to homes.
I can't house anyone right now, but am making a school supply run tomorrow. And here I thought I had purchased my last backpack years ago.
Actually it should be fun - the smell of crayons, # 2 pencils sharpened, notebook paper, poster board. Many retired teachers are volunteering to help HISD get all this ready to go.

Bless your heart, Michele.

Michele has had her schedule changed, so we can't meet until Wednesday and now she has a 4 AM shift on Thursday. I don't know if she has to also do that shift on Friday.
This is one special lady.

The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance group is, among other things, setting up a screening & "matching" service for those whose churches can serve as shelters or who can offer to host displaced people in their homes. It's about halfway down:

http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/usa/hurricanekatrina-index.htm

Anyone know of other denominations setting up similar clearinghouses?

Cheers, Anne

Michele - you are awesome! God bless you and all the others who are supporting the displaced people.

Anne, I received these links from a friend - don't know anything about these organizations but I will pass them along in case anyone is interested.

---------------------------

The website www.homesforkatrina.org , founded by Gabe Roffman, a Web application designer based in Charlottesville, Va., has organized a "match-making" system linked to the security firm Intelius that will donate criminal background checks "to eliminate any violent or sexual offenders from the system." Those who want to register to offer housing must agree to be screened by "reputable local charitable and religious organizations." The website is soliciting people who can act as liaisons with those groups.

Another site, www.katrinahousing.org , provides a registry for those offering housing, and those in need.

---------------
Dena

Claudia:

in addition to the above, I understand that Craig\'s List has an area for folks willing to give shelter to victims.

I add a caution.... anyone who read today's Wall Street Journal is aware that not everyone seeking shelter is a victim of the storm or a good person. If you decide to open your home and heart to people, please, please, please be careful. Legit organizations will help you here.

Doug

Dena - Thank you! I'm getting error messages on both of those links?

Doug - I second your advice. Unfortunately, both those seeking shelter & those offering shelter may not all have pure motives. Legit organizations should be running checks on both parties.

Cheers, Anne

Anne, just noticed that I had slipped in commas at the end of each of the links. I edited to move the commas out of the links and they seem to be working. Thanks for pointing that out.

I agree with Doug's good advice. Though most people have the best of intentions, I'm sure there will be some opportunists taking advantage of the situation, unfortunately. Good idea to work only through reliable organizations.

-------------
Dena

The latest from Michele. We are meeting in the morning for coffee.

Whew. What a day.....got home at 6:30 p.m. instead of 3p.m. like I thought. Apparently, there's more of a need during the week days since everyone is back to work. So, I spent 9:30 a.m. thru 3 p.m. downtown at the Convention Center. 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 at the Astrodome for the meal service. I think that's enough for today.....

Betty,

Thank you for being there when we all can't be. Wine on us on WAVE!

Betty & Michele,

My hat is off to you both. I can't express how special you both are to give of yourself in such time of need. Especially to Michele for traveling so far. Betty, you Houstonians are terrific!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!'

Cyndi

I worked at our local Red Cross this afternoon to help register volunteers. It was heartening to see 70 people spend all day in training for deployment to Katrina survivor shelters. The best guess as of today was they will need volunteers for a six month period of time. Betty, tell Michele the reinforcements are on their way and thank her from the bottom of our hearts for her hands-on help. Cheers, Anne

We had one young gal at the church spear head a drive for help to the victims and we have been overwhelmed with the response - money, apts, etc so I am going in tomorrow and try and help them return hundreds of local phone calls of people willing to help - we are bringing in a family from NO with retarded 14 yr old with special needs - first person to offer house was an older woman who lives here for 3 months a yr - they can have her house till next spring - have another family already here in hotel and people paying their expenses for 3 months - people are good!! Have one parishioner who will match the first 50 thou the church raises - we are at 44 thou

Bless you, Betty, and all others!

Yes, like Kathy, I say bless Betty, Michele, Joanna, Anne, and all the others who are managing to find the time to help so many in need. Makes me feel guilty that I am going off to Bermuda on Friday.

Don't feel guilty, Olivia. There's a LOT of work to be done over a long period of time. You'll find a time to do something important and timely for months to come.

Mind if I travel vicariously with you? I'm thinking .. pink sand ( ahhh ) pink sand ( ahhh)

Cheers, Anne

Anne, I just send money when these things happen,(because when I am home I have to work) more often to the Red Cross, because when you start looking into the different charities and their administrative costs, it gets very confusing to choose what is the best way to give bang to the buck. I read, maybe on CNN that Red Cross is giving $2000 debit cards to victims? How do they decide who will not abuse this privilege?

I will try and post from Bermuda if it is possible!

Olivia - Thank you for your generosity! Money is a very important part of the recovery effort. This particular disaster is so vast in scope IMHO that the organizations who are big enough to mobilize a meaningful response can do the most good (ie, Red Cross, Salvation Army, other large faith-based organizations). In other situations (ie, a more local event), I'd view it differently.

I'm reminded of the saying "each according to their ability". I can take the time right now to be "hands on"; five years ago that would have been impossible. Three weeks from now it will be impossible. So I do what I can when I can.

BTW, I think the CNN headline said FEMA was thinking about giving the debit cards out, not the Red Cross.

Now let's get back to daydreaming about pink sand (ahh) .. pink sand (ahh) .. Have a wonderful trip and enjoy yourself. I look forward to hearing all about it!

Cheers, Anne

Michele here! I see that dear Betty has cut & pasted all my emails to her above-thank you. She knew I was so tired.... We finally met yesterday morning & had a great time having breakfast. What a fun person she is! Betty treated me (I must look like the grapes of wrath so she made me feel like a queen immediately.) Thank you so much.

You guys are too kind. Your comments are so heartwarming. I'll post a little "from the floor of the Astrodome" update on the other thread ("Heart" something) Forgive me-I'm not all here yet.. You all are the best.
Michele