Thursday, September 01, 2005
Time to rant...

In this blog I have been trying to nicely say that instead of only sending money and wait for it to be processed to get the needed help to the folks whose lives have been completely torn apart by Katrina, right now you can take needed items or send cash to places where folks are not wasting any time at getting these people food, water, and clothing...

Well, after tonights experience, I am not going to be as nice...

I had heard on the radio there were folks that couldnt get help at the dome because they didnt come to Houston on one of the busses and they were in the Fiesta parking lot at Kirby and OST and there were problems there with folks that were not grateful for what they were given and wanted more from the folks that were helping, like beer, I knew that there would still be folks who would immediately need the things that are necessary for all human beings to live, so when I got home I said to my best friend Robert "well Robert, some folks are saying that the National Guard should be brought into handle the folks that they won't let into the Dome and they need food, so are you ready to go?" and after getting about 30 minutes of rest we were on our way...

Ive found that the best way to help folks in situations like this is to show up and ask what they need and then go get it, so thats what we did, when we got to the Fiesta parking lot there was the usual amount of vehicles for a normal business day, so we looked around and saw a smoker in the parking lot of a closed down crafts store on the other side of the corner and that was it, so we drove through one time to access the situation...

There was some dudes that had brought the smoker and were cooking the meat and putting it out on tables where there was already a bunch of stuff to go with it, there were cases of water and sodas stacked, a little bit farther down there were boxes of donations of clothing and toiletries, and people were constantly driving in the parking lot and dropping off more so they never ran out of anything, the folks needing help were getting the immediate help they needed, and I have never seen something like this before, no mater how well planned or organized, that was as orderly as this...

There were women from some church that were asking women with children if they had a place to stay for the night and if told no would say you do now and took them to a place to stay for the night...

Toys R Us across OST had agreed to let them set up in their parking lot after they closed, so they could be at a place where there was light when it was dark, and everyone made the move with no problems at all...

None of this had been planned in any way, it was not being put on by any organizations, there was no one processing anything or anybody, no one was telling anyone what to do, and all the folks there were getting the immediate help that they needed...

None of the folks helping wasted any time with unnecessary talk, they didnt pat each other on the back and tell each other what a great job they were doing, they just got the job done...

On the drive through it looked like they had and were going to continue to get all they needed but charcoal, so made another drive through to ask the dudes running the smoker to make sure, they said they needed some ice too, so we got them enough charcoal to last through tomorrow and enough ice to last through the night...

After that, since it was the 4th quarter of the Texans game and they were losing, we decided not to take Kirby and ended up on Fannin, I would describe what we saw, but the TV is fairly accurate about what a mess it is and I dont need to get my blood pressure up before going to bed, so take care and God Bless..Mikey

Ps: We didnt see anyone, during the time we were there, that was trying to get free beer...

Saturday, September 03, 2005
Food, Clothing, Toiletries, Shelter, Etc...

If you have collected food/clothing/toiletries/etc... and would like for it to go today to folks that need it, instead of just collected and stored while the collection sites wait for the Red Cross to tell them where to take it, take it directly to any of the Red Cross Shelters or the Star of Hope, you can also watch the news to find out about other places that are getting immediate relief to the folks that need it...

Note: 2nd Baptist Church on Shanks Road in Angleton now has evacuees in their beds, any and all food/clothing/toiletries/etc... will be very helpful and rapidly used to help the folks they have there...

If you have a shelter with empty beds and don't know how to fill them, watch and/or listen to your local news on TV and/or radio and you will be able to find plenty of folks that desperately need those beds...

And while I'm at it,there will be a MikeyWear booth today at the Blues and Bikes Festival, that the City of Freeport is having today from 1 to 11pm, Mikey the Clown should be there by 3pm to pass out candy to the kids, you can find out the details by going to the "Meet Mikey" link at MikeyWear.Com...

Saturday, September 03, 2005
Charcoal and Ice Needed Near Astrodome...

The folks that are helping out the people who were turned away at the Astrodome, in front of the Toys-R-Us at the corner of Kirby and Old Spanish Trail in Houston (note: the blog about them may have already been transfered to my blog archives), will need at least 200 lbs. of charcoal tommorrow, they will need ice too, at least 500 lbs., but due to ice donations by others and the limits of their storage capacity, please check with them 1st before bringing more than 100 lbs, you won't be able to get a reciept to take your donation off your taxes, but it will help get, many, many, many folks that are out of the "relief effort" loop the immediate they need, I know my limits and know that I am going to be too exhausted tommorrow to take anything up there, take care, God Bless, and G'night.....Mikey

Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Move to another corner of Kirby and OST...

1st off, want to tell you about something I have learned during all this, where you really should wear a winter coat if you are in a Mercury Tracer with 400 lbs of ice in the back seat, wearing shorts and a t-shirt is tolerable if you only have 300 lbs of ice in the back seat...

The folks that are helping the people who were turned away from the dome are no longer 24/7, but will be there from morning to evening, still serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and will now either be at the closed down craft store parking lot or off to the Old Spanish Trail side of the Fiesta parking lot, same corner, don't know if the military Humvees that were in the Toys-R-Us parking lot when we left have anything to do with the move or not...

Was told that yesterday there was a big argument (looks like I picked a very good day to collapse and not go up there) between the different folks that were helping, some of them wanted to accept cash donations and the others wanted to refuse cash donations, resulting in the folks that were wanting to take cash donations leaving, so they will not accept cash donations there and will only accept what is needed to help the people...

Thank you to whoever came by and donated charcoal! Combining that with the 120 lbs I brought today, they should have enough to last them a few days, the biggest need that they have now is lots and lots and lots of ice, but what is really the best thing to do is go by and ask them what they need most to help before going to buy anything...

Due to no longer running 24/7, at the end of the day they are taking what clothes that are not distributed down to the Star of Hope for the Clothing Distribution (once again, the keyword is: "Distribution") Center on Ruiz...

It's time for bed, so take care, g'night, and God Bless....Mikey

Wednesday, September 07, 2005
For those new to this blog...

Note: A lot of what I have written about the Katrina relief efforts and how you can get immediate help to the folks that need it has been rolled over to the archives...

I don't know of a shelter that can't use everything that is donated, but one of the biggest needs at the shelters I've heard from is childrens clothing, still suggest, though, that if you are going to buy something, go by the shelter 1st and ask them what they need the most...

Have been ordered by my friends and family to stay home and rest for a few days and I'm too tired to argue with them, so guess what I'll be doing?

It's wonderful to see so many people in other parts of the US stepping up to the plate to help these folks, it's helping more than you will ever know, take care and God Bless......Mikey

Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Should have taken my own advise...

We took another 300 lbs of ice up to where folks were helping the people who were turned away from the dome and they are no longer there, saw only 40-50 people walking aimlessly around the neighborhood in a daze, instead of masses of folks, evacuees can now come off the street to get processed at the Dome, they even put the entrance for that about 2 blocks away on McKee off of Main, so it looks like most of them took advantage, the Katrina Debit Cards should get the rest of them there, in other words, things are coming together in Houston...

With 300 lbs of ice still in the back of the MikeyWearMobile, we took it down to 2nd Baptist Church in Angleton (making it over a ton of supplies that the Mercury Tracer has hauled to either the Kirby/OST Relief Site, Star of Hope, or 2nd Baptist in Angleton), they currently have 25-30 beds open and have people there, waiting to help any evacuee that comes there with the paperwork to get financial aid...

Heard on the radio that the population of Baton Rouge, LA has tripled in size since this all started and I'm sure that any cash donations to their local Red Cross will be used wisely, you can also make your donations to them over the web...

After I've had a chance to get a good night's sleep, will start listing updates on shelters locations here on this blog, where folks can take food/clothing/etc... to be used to help these people without it having to spend any time going through the collection centers to get to them...

And yes, I'm being a hypocrite by saying this, because I didn't follow my own advise, but you really should ask the shelters what they need before you go buy anything for them, take care and God Bless..Mikey

Monday, September 19, 2005
Local Red Cross Chapters...