via Science Friday
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Walking a Mile in Rockaways Shoes
Whew! What a big weekend!
Friday started with a meeting at State Senator Sanders office where we really stole the show as the ONLY aid organization currently providing free mold remediation services for low income families of Rockaway, as well as the first group to engage in wide scale education about mold for residents. The day ended with meetings with another relief group to discuss how we can partner to be faster and more efficient in our work.
On Saturday the Rockaway community came together in an event called “Walk a Mile in our Shoes” to highlight the damage done by Sandy, and how large a recovery effort we’ll really need. The event ended in a lively rendition of that song we all know and love, “We’ve got high hopes,” because after all, we are in NYC where the love of Frank Sinatra knows no bounds.
The weekend continued with Mold Madness, as we call it, and we dispatched teams of amazing volunteers from across the NYC area to do some mold busting in several homes close to our workspace. A great time was had by all who donned those Tyvek suits.
Keeping our spirits up with hard work and camaraderie keeps our spirits up when we hear things like this:
⅕ of Rockaway Residents have not been able to return home. Before mold remediation happens, they just aren’t safe for rebuilding, and it’s usually so expensive it’s a major obstacle.
We’ve met with several groups who are in the area providing free rebuilding services with skilled workers and free materials. They told us they aren’t doing as much rebuilding as they could be, because they can’t rebuild over mold, and thousands of people are in need of mold treatment before they can return home.
We can help change that, and help these guys hit the ground running, We have 5 days left of this campaign to raise as much money as possible to get families rebuilding safely. Let’s do it, friends! Share this far and wide, and we can be a part of this recovery together.
Proof that this is all possible? Last week, an Italian filmmaker posted a Youtube video of his work with us. Since then, more than 65,000 have watched his video and hundreds have contributed between $1 and $5 to our campaign. If everyone we know and everyone they know could do the same thing, we’ll be getting more families home safe, faster.
More proof of the community coming together in big ways? As you know from following us on Facebook and Twitter, at the very end of the year we had a benefit concert in Woodmere, Long Island, graciously hosted by Woodmere Lanes/Backstage Nite Club. The lovely Allan Spielman of Retrofestivals.org called us one day, asked if we could use some help raising funds from a local guy who grew up in the area, and of course we said yes! The next thing we knew (and after a lot of help from Allan and his awesome, organized crew of amazing musicians and event planners) we were at the Backstage dancing and raffling off great prizes.
A huge thank you to Chuck Idol, who is not only a musician but also the owner of Long Island Builders, who sponsored the “backline” or sound equipment and sound engineer for the event. Please check out his work at his website, LongIslandBuilders.com and Concerts-4-Causes.com.
If you couldn’t be there and don’t mind being made to feel a little jealous for missing out, check out this video from Toby Tobias’ rendition of one of my favorite songs:
The event raised $1500, which goes a long way for our Disaster Relief collective. Respond & Rebuild was thrilled! A special thanks to all those who donated prizes for the raffles, including Palo Santo restaurant and Fort Reno, both in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who donated gift certificates for the cause.
Another person who reached out to us unexpectedly came to us from UHaul and UHaul’s Disaster Relief services provided us with free use of a box truck for one month, and you better believe we’re putting that thing to good use! (I’d thank them by name but they prefer to remain anonymous.)
Of course, thanks to all of our amazing volunteers, and thanks to all of the organizations on the ground that we work with everyday to make our response better, faster, and more effective. We love you guys.
Thanks for all you do. We can’t do this without people like you.
Oh! And the Italians who are making us famous? You can check out that now video:
Extra points if you can translate for us!
Moving forward and looking back.
It’s January 6th and the holidays already seem like a distant memory. Some of us spent time with far flung family and some of us relaxed in NYC, but we were more eager to get back to work than we would have been at any other job.
One of the best things that happened over our break was that one of the families we’ve worked with the longest is one step closer to moving home. They’ve started to rebuild! We’re excited that they took all the necessary steps to rebuild safely and that we were able to provide them with the support they needed to do that.
We can’t tell you how excited we are, and it makes us reflect on how much progress community relief efforts have made across the board. One of the things grassroots groups are so good at is helping people who might otherwise fall though the cracks. It’s important work and we’re happy to do it.
Of course, we couldn’t do this work without you, and we want to share these successes because your support makes it all happen!
With so much going on all of the time, it’s also good to look back on how far we’ve come since the storm. On that note, we’d like to share with you a little photo timeline of the stages we’ve been through since the storm, so you can have an idea of what the work you support looks like, from beginning to (almost!) the end.
Please share this post with others who would like to participate in these efforts, but who cannot make it down to volunteer. Anyone can be part of this efforts! Check out our slideshow below, and pass on our Indiegogo Campaign to get 250 families displaced by Sandy home safe.