HumidCity

I want to call out two blogger initiated relief campaigns for people suffering from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. First, the blogger Patrap who writes on a blog hosted at Weather Underground and frequently contributes in the comments on Dr. Jeff Master’s tropical weather blog, is organizing a truck of relief for Texas.

He is co-ordinating with a 501c3 so donations will be tax deductible, and working with a local blogger in the Galveston area to make sure the supplies are what is needed and get to people on the ground who need them most.

Since this is an effort coordinated by a fellow New Orleans blogger, I want to encourage the NOLA social media (bloggers and readers alike) to step up to assist Patrick in his effort.

The details are below:

Updated 4:27 pm with a new mailing address. Be sure to mark checks for Texas Hurricane Relief to ensure they are routed to Patrick’s effort.

We are coordinating a Relief Push for the Galveston area by Thursday.
We are renting a 16ft Budget truck to fill with relief supplies.
If you want to help you can contact Patrap via the Weather Underground site mail (if you have a Wunderground.com login), or you can donate cash support:

SEND to:

If sending Check..be sure to Memo it “Texas Hurricane Relief”.

Portlight Strategies, Inc.
2043 Maybank Hwy.
Charleston, SC 29412
MEMO: Hurricane Ike Relief

Or you can donate via Pay Pal.

We will send a Receipt with the Truck Manifest.

Check or Money Orders only. Thanks for responding.

NOLA owes Texas and we aim to help..in a Hurry.

The fiscal sponsor of Pat’s WU blogger initiative will be Portlight Strategies, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit tax exempt organization founded in 1997 for the purpose of providing medical equipment and other services primarily to people with disabilities. This was also the host organization for the Spirit of ADA Torch relay which visited 24 cities in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.All funds will be transparently accounted for in a separate dedicated account and posted on Pat’s blog and are a matter of public record through the organizations IRS Form 990 which can be reviewed at Charity Navigator or the IRS. For the last 6 years over 90% of all donated funds to this group have gone to direct program services.

ALL Checks received via mail will be endorsed and deposited into the non-profit account.

Pat

Two other efforts I want everyone to keep in mind are the drive started by Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage and Matri of Matri’s VatulBlog to help one of Louisiana’s most vulnerable communities, the native people of the United Houma Nation.

Please see Karen’s and Matri’s blog posts, and do what you can to help.

Finally, I want people to be aware of an opportunity to help the people of Haiti, the poorest and least developed nation in the Western Hemisphere. This tiny nation has been devastated by multiple hurricanes this year, people are desperately in need of assistance.

Gonaives, Haiti after Hurricane Hanna

While we on the Hurricane Coast have suffered, imagine life in hurricane ravaged Haiti. For all of the ridiculous failures of the central government to aid the people of coastal Louisiana, our resources are enormous compared to those of either the people or government of Haiti.

Even as we reach out to help our own, please dont’ forget Haiti. Read about the Lambi Fund’s efforts there and do what you can.

Thanks.
Mark Folse (Wet Bank Guy)
http://www.toulousestreet.net

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 5:26 am by WetBankGuy and is filed under Not Yet Sorted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.