I found someone who is going to personally drive books to Baton Rouge shelters. She will take anything: adult books, kid books, magazines, new, used, etc. Email her for details of where to mail them:
If you do need a specific contact address in Houston, Rachel, let me know--I just didn't have one that was for public posting. (Though the folks I know there are all through kid-writing groups, so more likely to be focused on kids books.)
I just linked to this info--it's good to know how to help in Baton Rouge, which is getting overwhelmed, from what I've heard, and has like doubled its population in the last couple weeks ...
Put out a call for school supplies -- or anything else -- and most people would be happy to send them.
But, like, first we need a place to send these things. The only ones I know of so far along these lines are donating goods to WorldCare, and money to the Red Cross.
If there are other individuals set up to handle these goods--or if you're on the ground and it would be useful for us to send things to you directly--either way, absolutely, let us know.
Call your local Mailboxes Etc., if you have one. Ours is coordinating shipments to a M.E. in Baton Rouge that will then parcel them out to various churches, shelters, etc.
Again, this is Constance. Ned and I are working in very different thing that is deeply connected to -- oh, ghoddessa, maybe you've all read in my news groups in various places, so you already know how deep our connection is with the communities of New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians.
That's where we have been going with all our own efforts.
But it's all entwined, like the Live Oaks roots -- these are the communties that make New Orleans New Orleans and not Los Vegas.
These are the people who never leave their neighborhoods, no matter how awful (but they aren't always like that, and they are home) because their churches are there.
When some commentators sneered about the Bibles greeting the evacuees when they arrived at the Houston Astrodome, well, these are by and large people for whom the Bible is their daily, intimate companion. These are the people who were suddenly kept in the Superdome because the 17th Street Levee broke, and their homes went under water, and when all the evil went down, evil I hope none of us ever experience, old people, dying, they sang and they clapped, they did their spirituals and their gospel musics.
And again, as I've been for years now, I am humbled at the dignity of people who have nothing and were put in the most evil of circumstances (really, honestly, look at the slave ship, and read the accounts of slave ships, and look at what the Superdome became after 48 hours), and how many of them sang and sang and clapped and clapped, people they did not know, Home.
This is what African music is -- connecting you to the Spirit, whatever you may call it.
And this is so much what the United States is. The best of it.
And we are seeing it it there in the evil stuff of the crash of New Orleans (why that happened is another subject), the real life that keeps us all going.
At first, in the first few days, of us knowing that this city that we were terrified of, loved and hated, was doing what we'd always feared, we couldn't stand to even think of the music.
And then, we began to play it.
And now, we can't stop.
"We won't bow down. No, we won't bow down. We won't bows down to the ground" -- Anthem, "My Indian Red," Hymm, for the great Mardi Gras Chiefs' Jazz Funerals.
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From:
no subject
I mailed a box of books to Houston this morning. They'll need some there, too.
From:
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It was great meeting you, by the way. I hope we can do it again under more cheerful circumstances.
From:
no subject
SCBWI-Houston
P.O. Box 19487
Houston, TX 77224
It was good to meet you, too! Usually I am somewhat goofier.
From:
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I just linked to this info--it's good to know how to help in Baton Rouge, which is getting overwhelmed, from what I've heard, and has like doubled its population in the last couple weeks ...
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
They need water, medicine, diapers, feminine hygiene products, female underwear -- CASH. And re-uniting with their families.
The people in the shelters in Louisiana are sicksicksick and dehydrated and lost.
It's the people in the secondary state shelters that are in better condition.
And even those -- what they need most is water, first, medicine second, clean sheets.
And after that, the most important thing for secondary shelters are school supplies.
Of toys, at least for girls, it's the occasional Barbie Doll that gets the response.
We've been working on this non stop since a week ago last Saturday.
Honestly, ask anyone on the ground there in Louisiana, working as a relief worker, books are the last thing they need right now.
Later, yes.
School supplies, yes, those they can use right now.
Please take this in the spirit in which it is meant.
Meaning I know you all want to do whatever and all you can to help.
And -- Blessings on all your heads.
Louisiana needs you all.
Love, Constance Ash
From:
no subject
But, like, first we need a place to send these things. The only ones I know of so far along these lines are donating goods to WorldCare, and money to the Red Cross.
If there are other individuals set up to handle these goods--or if you're on the ground and it would be useful for us to send things to you directly--either way, absolutely, let us know.
From:
no subject
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
You wanted a contact with the Red Cross.
I have one.
Please e-mail me at
constance@sff.net
C ASH
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
That's where we have been going with all our own efforts.
But it's all entwined, like the Live Oaks roots -- these are the communties that make New Orleans New Orleans and not Los Vegas.
These are the people who never leave their neighborhoods, no matter how awful (but they aren't always like that, and they are home) because their churches are there.
When some commentators sneered about the Bibles greeting the evacuees when they arrived at the Houston Astrodome, well, these are by and large people for whom the Bible is their daily, intimate companion. These are the people who were suddenly kept in the Superdome because the 17th Street Levee broke, and their homes went under water, and when all the evil went down, evil I hope none of us ever experience, old people, dying, they sang and they clapped, they did their spirituals and their gospel musics.
And again, as I've been for years now, I am humbled at the dignity of people who have nothing and were put in the most evil of circumstances (really, honestly, look at the slave ship, and read the accounts of slave ships, and look at what the Superdome became after 48 hours), and how many of them sang and sang and clapped and clapped, people they did not know, Home.
This is what African music is -- connecting you to the Spirit, whatever you may call it.
And this is so much what the United States is. The best of it.
And we are seeing it it there in the evil stuff of the crash of New Orleans (why that happened is another subject), the real life that keeps us all going.
At first, in the first few days, of us knowing that this city that we were terrified of, loved and hated, was doing what we'd always feared, we couldn't stand to even think of the music.
And then, we began to play it.
And now, we can't stop.
"We won't bow down. No, we won't bow down. We won't bows down to the ground" -- Anthem, "My Indian Red," Hymm, for the great Mardi Gras Chiefs' Jazz Funerals.
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
I have you a contact.
From:
no subject
So I should add school supplies, clean bedding, feminine hygene products to our boxes?
Is any of that NOT useful at this time?