Another opportunity to get involved

I got this email from my friend in New York the other day. If you can help in anyway, either let me know or contact the organization direclty.

"i'm sure most if not all of you have been following the devastation of hurricane katrina and horrific situations that people now find themselves in. my friend sarah wanted to help and developed the following idea:

we assume that many people who have been evacuated to houston, lafayette, and surrounding areas have other places they could stay around the country (i.e. with family and friends), but have no way to get there. it was sarah's idea to coordinate transportation from these shelter locations to other hubs (atlanta, chicago, tallahassee, new york, dallas, nashville, etc.) and then other transporation still from those locations to less-centralized areas, until these evacuees get to a safe place where they can stay and the shelters can be emptied. so far, we have a website, a toll-free number, and lots of people who have volunteered to help. we have delegated specific jobs to people who have volunteered so far. this is what we are still looking for:

STAFF:Development director: This person would be in charge of coordinating fundraising efforts, specifically money for chartering buses and paying for gas.

501(c)3 connection: Anyone who has a connection to a non-profit who might be able to have us raise money under their umbrella (since we don't have our own non-profit status yet) would be EXTREMELY helpful.

Public Relations: This person would be in charge of media management (press kits, interviews, etc.)


OTHER NEEDS:

BUSES!!!! BUSES!!!! BUSES!!!!!! This is our most immediate need. We are currently gathering information about where people are and where they need to go. now we need buses to get them there. the buses would have to go to the houston area and then take people to central hubs. this could mean if you know an organization that has a bus (church, choir, church choir, etc.) and would be willing to lend it, contact them. if not, raising money to pay for a bus would also be helpful. we have someone who is working on making arrangements with bus companies once some money is raised.

Kinko's Account: this project is going to incur some copying, faxing, and fedexing costs. we are dreaming of someone who would be willing to open a kinko's account for us and pay for it. we don't expect this to exceed more than a few hundred dollars, and of course whoever is in charge of it would be able to monitor it, etc. (i.e. it wouldn't be a blank check.)

Drivers in other locations: once we get our mass transit to major cities, we will need individuals WITH VEHICLES AVAILABLE to take other people on the next leg of their journey. we do not know exactly where these areas will be yet, as we've been operating for 48 hours, but we're working on it.


if you believe that you would be able to be helpful in any of the specific areas listed above, please let me know ASAP. for more info, check our website: www.katrinacaravan.org, which is being updated as frequently as possible.

thank you to everyone!

~emily