After hurricane Katrina, Pam Ryan Anderson, Broker of Ryan Realty, jumped into action!
Saturday, September 17th, 2005
Hello,
My trip to Louisiana is over, we arrived back in Clearwater at 2:30 am last Saturday morning. Most of my "team" is back, but five of them stayed to help longer.
I decided to go to Louisiana two days after the first leve broke, and wrote a brief e-mail, telling people that I had room in my car for people or donations. My good friend, Karen Simpson, immediately called me and told me that she was in and would help with the effort. In less than 48 hours, she and I pulled together a team of 19 people, four vehicles, two trailers, over $12,000 and I think, literally, tons of food, clothing, bedding, etc. In those 48 hours we received so many donations that in addition to the trailers that friends donated to our adventure, at the last minute we had to rent a 26" moving truck. On Saturday afternoon my husband, Joel, and I had to drive about an hour and a half to the far side of Tampa to pick up the truck. When we came back the mountain of donations had tripled -- in just an hour and a half. There was literally a pile three to four feet high in my parking lot that filled up about five parking spaces! I stood there in shock, knowing that we would NEVER get all of that into the huge truck that we had just rented.
We had also just purchased over $8,000 of food, diapers, drinks, underwear, socks, etc, with donations and had already loaded those into our truck. I will tell you it was quite a scene at Ryan Realty that evening. Cars continually kept driving in, two and three at a time making more donations, and a team of about 20-30 people just kept loading our vehicles. At about 9pm I had to refuse any more donations because I knew that we couldn't get one more thing into the truck. It was almost ten pm when the final donations got stuffed into the truck, and I do mean stuffed.
It was absolutely amazing the response we got from everyone in Clearwater. Donations came in as far as NJ and CT. My Mom and her husband, Dave, donated money, my oldest, bestest friend Terri made a financial donation, and a friend in CT called to say that she was sending money. For 48 hours straight my cell phone never stopped ringing. I was 100% blown away by the support for all of the people affected by Katrina. My simple e-mail generated such a vast, and quick response that it brought several of us to tears.
So now we had us a caravan!!! We all had banners on the rear of our vehicles that Bill Simpson had made up saying "Scientology Volunteer Ministers Hurricane Disaster Relief". We were all amazed at how many people on the highway blew their horns and gave us the "thumbs up" sign. It was really heartwarming to see the support that we had.
We headed north for to Baton Rouge where the Scientology Mission of Baton Rouge had set up headquarters for the disaster relief effort. As Scientologists, there is a training course that teaches people how to help people in many kinds of distress, and after doing the course, one becomes a Volunteer Minister (VM). Well, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have responded so quickly and in such numbers for the 9-11 attack, the hurricanes in Florida last year, and the the Tsunami in December, that we have become depended on by the Federal and Local governments to help when there is a disaster. In fact, we are now officially on the list of organizations in Florida that are called upon when there is a disaster, just as the Red Cross is called. We work hand-in-hand with the Red Cross, with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association) and local governments. We are known for our organization skills and for assisting people in any way that is needed, and for as long as we are needed. By the time that my team arrived in Baton Rouge, less than a week after the disaster, there were already over 350 Volunteer Ministers in Baton Rouge, established with all local agencies and providing whatever help we could.
My team ran into a problem that we had not anticipated. Americans responded so quickly and so overwhelmingly that no organization needed or wanted our donations. But we knew in our hearts that THE PEOPLE needed what we had to give. So for three entire days, two of them with 17 of our team members riding around, we attempted to unload our "gifts". We drove hours in different directions each day, and tried to get creative. Each location that we went to was 1-2 hours away, driving a 26 ft. moving truck and two large vehicles pulling large trailers. And don't forget, gas was not the easiest thing to come by! We went everywhere the Baton Rouge Mission sent us each day, but once we got there, we weren't able or allowed to unload the trucks. We tried every resource we could think of and were even escorted around town by a local woman that we met. After being told that Red Cross Distribution Centers were no longer accepting goods, we tried St. Vincent De Paul, a fire house, distribution centers not run by the Red Cross, and more. In the process, our team was one of the only ones that actually got to go into downtown New Orleans, the newest ghost town in history. Furniture had floated, or been pulled out of buildings, and there was furniture everywhere. Except for Volunteer Ministers and the armed forces, and I am talking big rifles everywhere, with helicopters constantly flying overhead, we only saw two people in the entire City. One guy looking for a bus ride, and one stubborn old homeless man that looked like he had moved in on some of the abandoned furniture. Other than that, there wasn't a person, dog, cat, bird, nothing. The whole scene was extremely eerie. But back to our donations.
We had to continue to think about the magnitude of the devastation and all of the newly homeless people and stick to our purpose of getting these goods to the people. We were turned away and sent on wild goose chases so many times, that at one point I considered giving up, turning around and coming back to Clearwater. Fortunately, we persisted. On the third day, late in the day, we were given the number of a Salvation Army Collection Center. Bill Simpson called and was told immediately that they couldn't accept any more clothing donations. Bill explained our situation to the man at the Salvation Army, in that we had been driving around with this truck and two trailers for three days now and that we had driven up from Florida the day before that. The man told Bill that he'd make an exception, and that we should come right over. Excited, we all headed over. The first thing that I checked when we got there was how our donations would be gotten to the people. I didn't want these items to be placed in a "store" where people had to pay for them. I was told that the Salvation Army has a truck that gets loaded every day with food and clothes and drives around giving these things to the hurricane victims. Other items like the baby items are put into a store, and hurricane victims are given shopping vouchers so that they can "buy" whatever they need without spending a dime. I was assured that our donations would be given to the people affected by the hurricane. This was what we had been looking for!
We were able to unload the truck and the wonderful guys at the Salvation Army helped us using their fork lift, a huge basket to put clothing into, pallets and a pallet lift. All of this made our unloading job go effortlessly, and was very nice for us after what we'd been through. Our team was extremely happy and our young VM's even made sure that all of our Salvation Army helpers had big chocolate chip cookies. Spirits were much higher all around by the time that our trucks were unloaded. Afterwards, I went into the office area where I spoke with two administrative personnel. I gave them a bit of our story and one of the guys said, "yea, it was me that told you to come over and I've already gotten my butt kicked by my boss for taking clothes". I told him that I was very sorry and again let him know how much we appreciated his help and then started letting him know just what we had in the truck. I asked him if he knew that we had hundreds of pairs of jeans from a store that went out of business. His eyes lit up and he sat up a bit straighter. Then I told him that we had diapers and baby items, and food, and oh yea, there was $3,000 in canned chili alone. His eyes got bigger and he sat up a bit straighter, getting brighter. Then I told him about the pallets of Gatorade, water, Ensure, etc, and he was sitting up very straight now and asked me if I had any idea how much all of this was worth. I told him that we'd spent about $8,000 on these supplies. Well, he was so excited now that he almost jumped out of his chair and said that he couldn't wait until the next morning meeting when he could tell his boss about all of this. He and his associate started thanking us over and over and told us that it was divine intervention that brought us to them. And seriously, after what we had been through for three days, I think he may have been right!!
In addition to this, our Clearwater team met a wonderful lady named Kaye who we felt definitely deserved to be helped. She lived very close to New Orleans and had started her own organization in her area, running VM's to help distribute food and water to people in the lines of cars that showed up every day. There was an entire houseful of VM's that were sleeping on floors and didn't have any bedding. Kaye was working closely with local police and fire department personnel. She told us that the police and firemen who had been working since the disaster had hit needed new underwear and socks, and had asked for some additional items. We took her shopping list and went shopping. So for Kaye, we made donations of bedding, socks, underwear, food for the VM's, baby items and more, all enabling Kaye to continue taking care of her community, as well as take care of her VM's. Additionally, we armed her with cases of books that she can use to educate her community and all of this brought tears to her eyes. The day before had been her birthday and when she first saw us bringing in stuff, she said oh, a late birthday present, but by the time her mountain of donations was in her office, she told us that this was like Christmas morning! By the very next day Kaye had already gotten many of the donated items to where they were needed.
So all in all, although it took a lot persistence, extra work, and a LOT of extra driving and gas, WE DID IT!! We managed to get the donations where they were needed and appreciated.
Our group also contributed by helping to man a center with 5,000 now homeless people, signing them in, getting them bedding, food, and supplies, giving lots of Assists* (just one of our VM's gave over 50 Assists in one day!!), playing with the children, manning the phones and more. We really made a huge difference by going for these several days.
My daughter Melissa did something that I have to tell you about. She has always loved horses and has dreamed of being able to work with them. Well, our new friend Kaye owns a pony farm with 17 ponies and 2 horses, and because she is so busy running the VM's she needed help on her farm. So Melissa volunteered to stay in Louisiana and take care of the horses. She stayed an extra week and just came home last night. I am extremely proud of her!
Kaye let us know that she couldn't find feed for her horses. So I made a call to Patti, my sister in NJ, who made one call and got money donated for feed. Then a friend of mine here in Clearwater got on the phone, made over 50 calls, and finally found feed close enough to the farm to get it to the ponies. Feed was available the very next day!!
Another thing that I want you to know is this. EVERYWHERE we went, people thanked us for being there, and you know how they knew we were helping? Because every day, each one of us had on a bright yellow Scientology Volunteer Minister shirt and the people in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas know who we are and what we are doing. There are so many of us up there that it is hard to go anywhere without seeing our bright yellow shirts!! People around the World are discovering for themselves that when help is needed, Scientologists are there to help!
Thank you very much to everyone that donated to help this hurricane relief to occur. Our trip was extremely successful, and we know that we have helped a lot of people by making their discomfort a bit less. Our Clearwater Team definitely made an impact!
Sincerely,
Pam Ryan Anderson
(Broker, Ryan Realty)
* Assists are simple, yet very effective tools to help people in distress. There are many kinds of Assists that are used for different reasons, but the results are often close to miraculous. One lady said that after an assist her lower back pain went away, a man that had lost his wife was amazed at how much better he felt after an Assist and wanted to know more about Scientology. Many children in the shelter where we were wanted to learn how to do Assists, and were later seen giving Assists to others in the shelter. A Police Chief that lost everything was given an Assist and was so blown away by the results that he told his entire Police Force that they should get Assists. Each day, over 1,000 assists were given in the disaster area.
