Ya’ll…*sigh*…I literally don’t even know…HARVEY. Most of you know that my family and family friends are from New Orleans. And some of you know that Hippo and I lived in San Antonio for a short while. What most don’t know is Hippo Papa is from Texas, specifically the Houston area. I also have family and close friends who live in various parts of Texas. Like Katrina, Harvey has taken over their lives and turned them upside down. I also know that there are so many people who read this blog and follow me on social media who are sitting in a shelter, displaced from their homes and their possessions. I am sick.
Friday night I was sitting at an awards ceremony where I was honored for my work in philanthropy & advocacy. But I spent most of the night in the ballroom on my phone sending out information on how patients could protect themselves during a storm. Harvey touched down and took out three towns within minutes. Rain came down and the water began to rise. Texts back and forth to those I love. I sat in the ballroom feeling helpless.
I turned that feeling into action. By Saturday I was connecting people to resources, rescues and more. By Monday two other advocate friends, Alison from Empowering Patients and Molly from And Then You’re At Jax, were asking me, “What have we got!” . We started a group, an amazon list and google forms all asking for supplies for those who are often forgotten. Patients. People with special needs and chronic conditions have different basic needs. During a crisis like this, those needs are gone unmet. So, we decided to fill that need with donations from other patients and asking non-patients to take a look at the needs of others. Our group of 100 has grown into a group of over 400. We have patients in need asking for supplies, and we connect them volunteers on the ground delivering the donations sent into Texas. Please help us! We need more donations, more volunteers and we want more patients to know that we are here for them!
If you would like to DONATE, please sign up HERE.
If you would like to VOLUNTEER to receive items and/or deliver in Texas, please sign up HERE.
If you are a person in need of any kind of supplies, please sign up HERE.
If you cannot put a box together and would just like to order items to send, please visit our Amazon lift HERE.
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