Old news about us... the salmon was my ideer; passed on to Yarrow, who shows up soon, and relayed home. No applause :>)
September 15th, 2005 2:56 pm
Coast residents, groups, businesses, schools reach out to Katrina victims
By Frank Hartzell / Mendocino Beacon
From nurses to quilts to cookies, Mendocino Coast residents have been giving of themselves to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, many through the Veterans for Peace road trip.
The American Red Cross, the national leader in the effort to help the hurricane victims, is bringing refugees to Sonoma County this week and getting many local donations. A Katrina fund-raiser, featuring New Orleans jazz, is planned for Sept. 30 at the Caspar Community Center. Students from Redwood School and other local schools have sent cards and letters to the victims.
Veterans for Peace effort
An effort started by the Mendocino County Veterans for Peace bus, which diverted from a White House protest trip to Covington, La. to help hurricane victims, has grown to include a coast consortium of people and groups eager to help hurricane victims.
Veterans For Peace, Code Pink and the Mendocino Coast Peace and Justice Center are some of the groups that have formed the Mendocino Coast Katrina Relief Committee, a VFP press release stated.
Thanksgiving Coffee Co. had donated the use of a biodiesel-powered truck and the group was to leave this week. But the group decided they needed more time and a bigger truck.
The new plan is Carolyn Lee of Fort Bragg will purchase a truck that seats five people and rent an enclosed trailer, and will drive down to Covington next Monday with the supplies that the group will have gathered by then. Lee has also raised $1,000 for some of the expenses. College of the Redwoods student Barbara Rahm Jones, a former truck driver, has volunteered to drive with her to Louisiana for the Veterans for Peace-led groups. A fellow CR student, Neshama Rakofsky, plans to ride along and spend two weeks helping victims, she told the Veterans for Peace gathering on Monday.
At the Monday meeting, the Veterans for Peace contingent said about a pickup load or two worth of materials have been dropped off at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino, the Elk Store, at the Westport Market and at a home on Harrison Street, but more is needed.
The locals in Louisiana are asking for supplies for family packs most of all, including dried foods, first aid kits, matches, cans of sterno, baby food, flashlight and spare batteries. The donated materials will be packed locally before being sent. Also still needed are vehicles to deliver supplies to outlying areas, supplies such as diapers, pre-mixed baby formula, feminine hygiene products, latex gloves, medical supplies, Ensure and electrolyte drinks, dehydrated milk, dehydrated eggs, dehydrated potatoes, etc.
The Veterans for Peace report that their efforts to help the small town of Covington have now branched out to even smaller and more neglected towns in Louisiana, Anna Marie Stenberg told the Monday meeting of the coastal group that is preparing to deliver supplies. She reported that many towns have been overlooked in the rescue effort and many people in remote areas are badly in need of supplies and there aren't sufficient vehicles or people to deal with the problem.
Coordinator for donations is Hyla Bolsta who can be reached at 964-7646. The donations have ranged from the essentials to five cases of cookies donated by the Mendocino Cookie Co.
Veterans for Peace member Zac Zachary, who has been coordinating the relief effort, is looking for frozen salmon or rockfish to take to Louisiana. He can be reached at 964-3621.
Zachary feels the salmon represents Northern California to people around the country and would be a good gift. Fish can be transported on dry ice or kept fresh with salt and ice.
"We're hoping other organizations, churches, schools, businesses, etc. will join us for this effort that may last months because of the incredible devastation in the Gulf Coast. For the time being we have adopted the black community of Covington to aid because they are being neglected by FEMA and because Mendocino County people are already there helping," said a press release from the Veterans for Peace, issued in response to questions.
The conditions on the ground can be monitored at vfproadtrips.org
Checks can be made out to and mailed to Mendocino Coast Peace & Justice Center, P.O. Box 1134, Mendocino 95460.
The Veterans for Peace have also written to the Venezuelan embassy, seeking to take President Hugo Chavez up on his offer to donate oil. The group hopes to buy gasoline at Citgo stations and get reimbursed from Venezuela, which owns Citgo.
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