How are you Contributing to the Relief Fund(s)

[Jim Casey]

Hey everyone...
This is not to one up anyone. I am curious to see how everyone (or if anyone) is out there actively raising money for the Hurricane Katrina relief funds?

In Maine, about a doze DJs are getting together to throw a 3 city party with free admission (donation to the American Red Cross)

anyone else?

[Professor Jam]

A couple weeks ago we raised over 30k filling one 53ft semi-trailer and seventy-five percent of the second with food, clothing and house wares.

We also sent a U-Haul truck filled with cases of bottled water to the Coast Guard headquarters in Tampa and they flew it that day to the damaged areas.

4-days averaging over 14 hours a day in the hot Florida sun - I was fried and being a cancer survivor that’s not a good thing.

After all said and done I experienced great individuals showing compassion and children giving toys and piggy bank savings.

One women gave a van load of canned goods and told us her sister was in New Orleans and they had not heard from her at that point.

I experienced story after story that just grabbed your heart.

I also witnessed the worse... A women pulled up when I was in the middle of State Rt. 19 rolled down her “HUMMER” window, looked me square in the eye and said Your Going To Use The Money Your Collecting To Buy Drugs or Alcohol Aren’t you!

I was confused and thought she was joking and asked her what? She repeated it and added “I’m tired of you low-life pan-handlers”.

Without a pause I pulled out my personal wallet, grabbed a $10 bill and tossed it into her Hummer as I stated "you can use that for counseling - you need to learn what human compassion is!"

I then pointed at the Mall parking lot with our set-up and my system blaring patriotic music and a Hugh sign she did not see that said Hurricane Relief Collect Area.

I refused the return of the money and when the traffic light changed she turned left into the mall. Giving an individual working our tent the $10 to return to me and wrote a check for $200. I still think she needs counseling it took nerve to do what she did to a stranger.

[Cap]

Jim : Allison and I have decided to wait a bit. We gave a significant sum at the outset but both mutually agreed, as tough as it is, to wait until the first tide of responses dwindle. In several months, all will be forgotten or back burnered and that's when we'll jump in head first, when the crossroads between immediate relief and actual individuals's rebuilding go their spearate ways.

There's talk about possible refugee relocations to the northeast. We'll offer our guest room as a medium term temporary dwelling if our church asks us.

Jam : You, sir, are purely a ballsy guy and I absolutely admire and am humbled by the way you handled the Hummer. Can you hear the applause? It's loud and long.

[SirWolfy]

Donated MC services and three of our four PA systems for a 9 hour benefit held on 9/11. We raised about $10K in money and are in the process of filling up a 53' trailer with clothes and non-perishables. 16 local bands participated as well as another local DJ service donating their time and a system too.

Seems like everyone and their brother around here is up to some sort of donation or benefit drive.

[Wolfie]

Greets, Jim.

We haven't contributed as far as the DJ business goes (we have not yet been asked). But there are "drop boxes" in practically every store that promise matching funds from the proprietors. I've contributed. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

[Professor Jam]

Cap,

Thank you - She just pissed me off... She could have just looked straight ahead pretending I did not exist like so many others, but she was just rude and picked the WRONG "Will Work For Food" panhandler to pull that one on lol... It overall was a great event and many expressed great compassion - Our goal was $4,000 and a U-Haul...