Okay, kids, call to action time. After posting my Thursday message about how if I had unlimited resources, I’d provide a filled backpack to every child survivor of Katrina, my message was forwarded to a local company, and a grassroots effort was started by the employees to do just that. 200 employees have pledged to bring in a backpack on Tuesday, and the company has said they will ship them to Houston and arrange to have them delivered. Oh, and for every backpack an employee brings in, the company will match with one. That could mean 400 or more backpacks, each with a stuffed animal or toy, crayons, markers, etc. Some people have said they’ll put in clothes, art kids and handheld games. Oh my God, can you believe this? I’m not at liberty to give more details than this at this time (or even the name of the company), but hearing this brought tears to my eyes, and makes me want to do more.
So now I’m challenging all of you.
Can you get the word out, have others pull together a backpack with boy or girl-specific items in it, and then send them to the people at CoffeeCup? How awesome would it be if we could somehow get 10 or 20 or 100 people to send a backpack? (I can’t begin to hope we could get one for EACH child, but darn it, I want 1000 backpacks to head to Texas!)
CoffeeCup Software
c/o Hurricane Aid
226 South Tancahua Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78401
I wish I was in a position to gather and ship them myself, but I really have no room to do that, plus, it isn’t like all of you life in the Leominster-Fitchburg area. But if you do send something, can you let me know – drop an email or post a comment to this message? That would be FANTASTIC
[Updated:
Another family started an effort very similar to this one, and in fact they are far more organized. I’m not looking for glory – I’d be happy if we hitched up to their wagon too. The whole point is to get stuff to the kids, not to have the best backpack drive. http://www.projectbackpack.org/
Here’s another link I received for a similar effort. These people are trying to pull together school supplies for the thousands of kids pouring into Texas school systems. Another great effort! http://backpack.random-assortment.com/link.html) ]
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From Agathena in the dailyzos.com’s comments section:
Just say 9/01 – That is the day that Bush said:
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”
PBS did.
National Geographic did.
Popular Mechanics did.
Scientific American did.
Army Corps of Engineers did.
Scientists at University of Louisiana did.
Scientists at Louisiana State University did.
“Ah don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees”- GWB, 9/01 2005
