Pound Ridge, NY, September 19, 2005 -- When Mary Haynes of the Cheyenne, Wyoming retailer Carpet Works of Cheyenne saw the devastation that Katrina caused, she and her husband T.J. Decided to do something to help. By September 3, the Haynes’ had convinced their landlord to let them use a vacant 10,000 square foot storefront four doors down from their store as a Hurricane Relief Center. Then they began making calls, finding out where to send the supplies they had gathered.
By September 17, they had sent seven truckloads of food and clothing to the Salvation Army, and to the sheriff’s department in Covington, Louisiana, which was devastated by the storm, but has been all but ignore because of the attention given to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. They also sent a truck to the small Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville.
Why a town in Georgia? T.J. explained that places like Lawrenceville, which opened their arms to Katrina refugees, face the same desperate needs for clothing, food and school supplies as people in Louisiana and Mississippi face.
Not only are the Haynes’ doing something extraordinary for people twelve hundred miles away from Cheyenne, but they’re doing it unlike anybody else. Before any of the clothes they send get wrapped on pallets, they make sure they’re clean, folded and sorted by size and sex, so the overburdened people on the other end of the distribution chain don’t have to deal with the logistics of doing it. As a result, it gets distributed much faster than supplies from the Red Cross or FEMA.
The Haynes have been getting a lot of support for their drive. Cartwright Distributors of Denver has driven two of its trucks down. The shipping firm Watkins-Shepherd has given them the use of their trucks and drivers for the cost of the gas to get them down there and back. Even FedEx and the local Wal-Mart have pitched in to help.
By the time the Haynes’ relief drive ends at the beginning of next month, they expect to ship about 14 truckloads of food, water, clothes, suitcases, books and even wheelchairs to storm victims all over the Gulf Coast.
If you want to set up your own relief drive, you can e-mail T.J. at tj@carptworks.com and he’ll give you the names of agencies that need help. Be sure to listen to his interview with Dave Foster on Floor Radio.
