Socks for Sandy

Hurricane Sandy roared through the Eastern seaboard on Halloween, leaving millions in New York and New Jersey without any power and some without homes.  My friend Katie lives in New Jersey but thankfully has moved away from the shore recently.  I say thankfully, because this is her old neighborhood today:

Her husband took these photos of their area, and I’m sharing them here with Katie’s permission to show you an up close, insider view of the devastated areas of New Jersey. 

Katie said the sand is three feet high in some areas, covering roadways, houses and burying fire hydrants.

This is just heartbreaking.  I’m reminded of this post that I wrote after the April 2011 tornadoes came through Alabama.  We are no strangers to devastation via Mother Nature down here in the South.  That horrible tornadic day in Alabama and Hurricane Katrina will never leave this generation of Southerner’s memories.  I’m so sorry that our friends in the Northeast now have the memory of Sandy forever associated with Halloween, 2012. 

I always feel helpless in events like these.  There is a sense of urgency and a pit in the bottom of my stomach before big storms arrive.  I’m kinda weather obsessed, and a bit of a Chicken Little, I will admit, during storm warnings.  Alabama is blessed to have James Spann, one of the greatest meteorologists in the whole country, so he keeps us informed of any and all big weather events around the nation.  He and a group of other self proclaimed weather geeks had an online discussion on WeatherBrains a few nights before the storm hit discussing all the possible scenarios.  It was not good.  That only served to increase the sense of urgency I felt about this storm.  Now that the Hurricane has made landfall and all the destruction has been surveyed, my mood has shifted to figuring out ways that I can help the people affected. 

Last week I found the answer I was looking for.

Imagine having cold feet and not having anything to slip on to warm them.  Imagine being in a shelter in New Jersey weeks after Hurricane Sandy took your home and all of your possessions away from you and not even having a pair of socks to slip on your feet for comfort.  That feeling of warmth, of comfort, is something we take for granted. For the victims of Hurricane Sandy, it is a feeling we want to give back to them.

Laura Kuhlmann, a blogger and member of Hometalk who lives in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, was fortunate that her neighborhood was spared with only minor damages.  Others in her area were not so lucky.   Laura couldn’t stop thinking about something her sister-in-law (volunteering at the local hurricane shelter) told her…. People were walking around barefoot and just wanted a pair of socks. Even as donations started to pour in to the shelter, Laura couldn’t get the idea of warm socks out of her head. She wanted to collect some warmth on a large scale for the victims of Sandy, and shared her idea with me and our fellow blogging friends on Hometalk. Our network of Hometalk bloggers includes several members living in New Jersey who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. We embraced the idea enthusiastically with offers of help to bring this idea to fruition.

So here we are.

Our mission is a simple one that requires a quick turn-around time.  We want to provide socks to warm their feet, gloves to warm their hands, and winter hats to warm their heads. All will warm their hearts.

You can help us gather up some warmth to share by collecting socks, gloves and winter hats, and sending them to:

Socks for Sandy
P.O. Box 520
Little Egg Harbor, NJ 08087

Please mail by Friday, November 9, since the need is urgent.

This can be a great project to involve your kids in, because it all comes down to giving a bit of warmth to someone in need. Laura will receive all packages and immediately take these to the local hurricane shelter. Any excess will be given to the other hurricane shelters up and down New Jersey’s coastline. What started as an idea has blossomed into multiple bloggers joining forces to help the people who need us after the Hurricane.

If you cannot send a donation of new socks, gloves or hats here is another simple option:

Donate directly to the Red Cross is still the fastest way to get your money into the hands of those who need it the most.

At the very least, please tweet or instagram this post with the hashtag #socksforsandy to help raise awareness.