Truckerdoc
September 14th, 2005, 10:27
Bill Culkin, Our August Knight of the Road, arranged for Overnite Transportation to take our supplies to the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana.
He took responsibility for ensuring proper shipment from the warehouse in Old Forge, PA. Bill asked his dispatcher, Todd Reedy, and a dock worker, Ed Hafele, to help with the pallatizing and shrink wrapping. Ed's son Brandon came with his father to help.
We had 1/2 a trailer load from the Abington School District alone . The kids worked for 3 days bringing in, sorting and packaging supplies. The home economics class made a bunch of beautiful new baby quilts in that short time span. Children donated awesome stuffed animals and put notes on them to the children who would be receiving them. Some of the notes were so touching that we all wanted to cry.
Throughout Saturday, more people came with supplies. After the HIDC, Bill took all the donations to the warehouse and he, Todd, Ed, and Brandon started their heavy-duty work. A lot of the donations were in big plastic bags, and some of the boxes had to be re-boxed.
Bill called me about 5:30 to see if I could stop by to see them. I called Shelly (the organizer of the collection) and told her I was going to the warehouse. She jumped in her car, stopped for pizza and cokes and met us at the warehouse.
We were blown away by all the work that had to be done. Shelly, her daughter, and I stayed with the Overnite guys and helped them sort supplies to put on the pallets. We finished at 10:30 that night. Shelly and I learned a lot about boxing and shipping stuff. In fact, Jimmy and I are going to do a radio show with these Overnite men in October. They are incredible people.
We had people who donated 1 or 2 rolls of toilet paper rather than a whole package. We nicknamed Todd the Toilet Paper King because he was loading a pallet with toilet paper - often one roll at a time.
These supplies are going to the St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana, which is one of its poorest parishes. Now the parish has the huge influx of evacuees who have even less than the local citizens. According to Deputy Chief Osborne, the volunteers down there have stations and forklifts lined up for miles on the side of the highway. As soon as the supplies come in, they put them out on the tables and people take them. We asked about going down there to help out, but Deputy Chief Osborne's contacts told him that we wouldn't be able to find a hotel room until we got well into Texas, and they couldn't even guarantee that we would get food everyday.
I read an article 2 days ago about a truck drivers who were sent to the Baton Rouge area to deliver supplies. They were told to wait in a parking lot. And these drivers had been sitting in this lot for a week. They had no food except what was in their trucks. They ate that & had no way to get food. A charitable organization noticed their plight and took them some beans and rice.
It's hard to believe all of this is going on in the U.S.
He took responsibility for ensuring proper shipment from the warehouse in Old Forge, PA. Bill asked his dispatcher, Todd Reedy, and a dock worker, Ed Hafele, to help with the pallatizing and shrink wrapping. Ed's son Brandon came with his father to help.
We had 1/2 a trailer load from the Abington School District alone . The kids worked for 3 days bringing in, sorting and packaging supplies. The home economics class made a bunch of beautiful new baby quilts in that short time span. Children donated awesome stuffed animals and put notes on them to the children who would be receiving them. Some of the notes were so touching that we all wanted to cry.
Throughout Saturday, more people came with supplies. After the HIDC, Bill took all the donations to the warehouse and he, Todd, Ed, and Brandon started their heavy-duty work. A lot of the donations were in big plastic bags, and some of the boxes had to be re-boxed.
Bill called me about 5:30 to see if I could stop by to see them. I called Shelly (the organizer of the collection) and told her I was going to the warehouse. She jumped in her car, stopped for pizza and cokes and met us at the warehouse.
We were blown away by all the work that had to be done. Shelly, her daughter, and I stayed with the Overnite guys and helped them sort supplies to put on the pallets. We finished at 10:30 that night. Shelly and I learned a lot about boxing and shipping stuff. In fact, Jimmy and I are going to do a radio show with these Overnite men in October. They are incredible people.
We had people who donated 1 or 2 rolls of toilet paper rather than a whole package. We nicknamed Todd the Toilet Paper King because he was loading a pallet with toilet paper - often one roll at a time.
These supplies are going to the St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana, which is one of its poorest parishes. Now the parish has the huge influx of evacuees who have even less than the local citizens. According to Deputy Chief Osborne, the volunteers down there have stations and forklifts lined up for miles on the side of the highway. As soon as the supplies come in, they put them out on the tables and people take them. We asked about going down there to help out, but Deputy Chief Osborne's contacts told him that we wouldn't be able to find a hotel room until we got well into Texas, and they couldn't even guarantee that we would get food everyday.
I read an article 2 days ago about a truck drivers who were sent to the Baton Rouge area to deliver supplies. They were told to wait in a parking lot. And these drivers had been sitting in this lot for a week. They had no food except what was in their trucks. They ate that & had no way to get food. A charitable organization noticed their plight and took them some beans and rice.
It's hard to believe all of this is going on in the U.S.