Please help hurricane Sandy victims in Staten Island

Hurricane Sandy victims in Staten Island are suffering far more than is being reported. Won’t you please help?

We need help feeding our neighbors whose lives have been destroyed. We need your prayers as well. The Red Cross and FEMA are doing very good work, but even they are falling behind.

I am a volunteer at a relief center set up by and for ordinary Staten Islanders with no government help. We are retired New York City Police Officers and Firemen. We serve 800 to 1000 meals a day from our own pockets and the generosity of other ordinary people.

I know you are not hearing and/or seeing much about Staten Island in the media, but the devastation is much worse than any single entity can fix without help.

Staten Island is a suburban county within New York City, but that is the extent of our connection to “The City.” The section of Staten Island I am asking for help for is largely single family homes whose owners are mainstream Middle America.

We need help; please help us. We have craftsmen from around the nation working 24 X 7 to bring homes back on line (no we are not all on line yet as the media would suggest) – but we need food and or money for food.

Anyone wishing to make a donation that will go 100% to feeding Midland Beach Sandy victims can send a check to: Hurricane Relief Fund c/o Knights of Columbus Staten Island Council 1662 22 Hillside Terrace Staten Island NY 10308

We don’t need clothes. The region and the nation have opened their hearts and closets to provide enough warm clothes for now.

We need food and or money for food. To help feed victims who have nothing, no home or belongings - really nothing because they ran out of their homes in knee deep water into the night during a raging storm.

One restaurant owner who has been helping us feed people at the Midland Beach Relief Center is Eddie Canlon. Eddie won the Thanksgiving Day episode of the Food Channel’s “Chopped” and is a man who is always there to help others.

You can contact any Staten Island restaurant but Eddie Canlon has already started donating his own money and services to feed hungry Midland Beach Staten Island victims. You can contact Canlon’s restaurant at: 718 667 3013 1825 North Rail Road Ave SI NY 10306

Arrange to pay for as many or as few food trays as you wish to be delivered to Midland Beach Relief Center 1126 Olympia Blvd (at Lincoln Ave) SI 10306 and Canlon’s will take it from there.

Separate issue: if anyone wants to just write a letter of encouragement to Midland Beach victims they can write to the Midland Beach Relief Center 1126 Olympia Blvd (at Lincoln Ave) SI 10306. Letters of this kind even from strangers can put a smile of weary faces – even if for just a little while.

Would you please circulate this appeal for help for Staten Island victims of hurricane Sandy?

My position has NOTHING to do with being cheap and everything to do with refusing to toss pearls before swine and enabling a political enemy.

Of course being told to STFU is to be expected from Uppity Northeasterners.

After all, they are the ones who scoffed and laughed at us during our time of calamity and they are the ones who made Obama their king.

They can all rot or stand in line at the throne of government for the redistribution of our wealth to sustain them. They get nothing from me.

I refuse to enable sin, bad behavior and aiding and comforting the domestic enemy.

Yesterday I stopped by the Midland Beach Relief Center which is located in the middle of one of the communities that were slammed by Sandy. I met Coach Kevin and several of his brethren. They do include retired NYPD Police Officers and NYFD Firefighters.

They have set up stations in Midland Beach at the Parish Hall of St. Margaret Mary's RC Church, where residents and volunteer can get a hot meal, refresh themselves, and get donated supplies. At this site they had arranged for free legal advice and there was a nurse outside giving tetanus and flu shots as well as first aid as needed.

Coach explained that Eddie Canlon, who owns a local family restaurant has been bringing trays of food on a daily basis to this site. Canlon has been doing it out of his own pocket since the beginning. Coach can tell that it was becoming a financial strain on Canlon, but he would never say a word. Hence, the call to ask other to help out. The telephone calls to Canlon’s Restaurant and people chipping in by credit card donations to Eddie's costs have helped.

Coach Kevin and other volunteers, including his group of retired cops and firemen as well as Knights of Columbus Council 1662 (22 Hillside Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10308. Tel. # (718) 317-0343) have been assisting with the preparation and serving the food, as well as hands-on help to people affected.

This is legitimate. I got there just before lunch time and the KofC had burgers going on the grill station they had set up outside the hall. Coach Kevin and a retired NYPD Cop were inside serving hot soup and encouragement.

If you want to help, they are doing good work.

Coach Kevin also explained that the letters of encouragement that people all over the country have sent are a big help. The letters and cards get passed around and help to lift spirits. If you can send a letter or a card telling the folks that you are thinking about them and even praying for them it would really help

[I do not know if cash or credit card donations to Canlon’s to pay for a tray of food are tax deductible or not. I suspect they are not, since he is a businessman, just helping his neighbors. Donations to the Knights of Columbus probably are tax deductible. If you want to send a large donation, perhaps you could call the Kof C and get the details.)

I'll forward some additional info later today, if I get a break at work.

Thanks, and stay safe.

I don’t know either, perhaps some FReepers have some ideas?

It is going to be difficult for many once the weather turns cold again and the enthusiasm wanes.

I am not sure what the status of FEMA trailers is. Our Boro President had come out against them, but I understand the numbers of people made homeless is huge and many will not have their homes repaired or replaced very soon - if at all.
For those folks I am optimistic that the community will step up to help. I assume the situations are similar in the other areas affected: Queens, Brooklyn, Monmouth and Ocean counties.

Thanks for caring and helping

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.