America is on Fire

[Texas Transplant]

The Salvation Army clothed my children within hours, when we had an apartment fire during the night. Then provided hubby and I shortly thereafter (next day) with 2 changes of clothes.

Edit: they also clothed everyone else in the unit/building. 1.5 months later they contacted us, to be sure we had what we needed, and provided us with a Turkey and misc groceries for Thanksgiving. The kids also were given new shoes and socks, we didn't ask for them. I love our S.A. here in Texas.

There's no doubt they help people....unfortunately, in recent years there's been controversy in their allocation of funds.

 

[Texas Transplant]

My friend and I are planning a quarantine bake sale to donate to the red cross for fire relief. We are going to plan a menu, prices, delivery strategy, and shopping list this weekend. Next Friday we will go around taking orders, next saturday we will bake everything, and next sunday we will deliver everything. I know that next sunday is such a long way away but we are both still in school and this is the best we can do. (I"m taking suggestions for menu items, btw. So far we have:
-Brownies
-Blondies
-Choc. Chip Cookies
-Sugar Cookies
-Cupcakes)

Sounds like a good menu, best of luck in your efforts.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Does anyone know of a way that we could organize a group of the more trained and willing as well as skilled hands of us that would be willing to travel and put some of our free time to work on some of the rescue efforts if we had the financial resources to do some good?

Not a good idea if you don't have a concrete plan. Spoke to a friend w/ family in Portland, her niece and a group of other volunteers tried to take household supplies down towards central OR and were held at gunpoint by armed militia. Police were nearby and turned a blind eye. There's a lot of fear of looting. You cannot just walk in and assume people want your help.

In the end she said they took the supplies back to Portland and distributed it there to some shelters or something.

 

[Texas Transplant]

I am in Santa Cruz. The air quality is still horrible. We had to evacuate and it was horrible trying to house the chickens and ducks. Everything happened so fast. We did not have enough crates for the animals and my husband just put them all in his truck bed (it is covered). They were not happy but it was an emergency. Fortunately, we are all safe now and everyone survived.
However, I think the people that are still at risk, especially in Oregon, might need shelter for their chickens and ducks. I am not sure how you would get it to them, but if there is an organization that would take donations to organize it, I think that would be ideal.

cowboy911 connects those with pets in livestock with folks that have land/space available
https://cowboy911.org/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/270203390408097/

Equine rescue/evacuation/hay funds etc:
https://www.facebook.com/FleetOfAngelsNews/

 

[drumstick diva]

When my father was in the service, he said Red Cross would charge soldiers for coffee, but, the Salvation Army provided it free.

 

[Floof]

The Red Cross has been wonderful in my part of Oregon. They filled a whole motel just with displaced families like ours and they brought meals TO OUR DOOR twice daily. We were allowed to go back home last night and have been blessed to have a home to go back to but there were other families who weren't so lucky and were getting news from neighbors that their homes had burned or were looted. Please, if you are able to donate, people need clothes, small toys to entertain their kids in hotel rooms (can't even take the kids outside because the air is so bad), pet foods, laundromat vouchers, pop top foods (who brings a can opener when fleeing a fire??), toiletries, etc. Most importantly people need kindness and patience. My daughter isn't used to needing help and had such a hard time accepting basic items when we were evacuated and one of the volunteers helped walk her through all of the supplies and made her feel so much safer and more comfortable. I hope that I am in the position to be like that lady one day.

 

[Marie2020]

Not a good idea if you don't have a concrete plan. Spoke to a friend w/ family in Portland, her niece and a group of other volunteers tried to take household supplies down towards central OR and were held at gunpoint by armed militia. Police were nearby and turned a blind eye. There's a lot of fear of looting. You cannot just walk in and assume people want your help.

In the end she said they took the supplies back to Portland and distributed it there to some shelters or something.

That's appalling. The police just let that happen? Then the army should be helping surely.

 

[Marie2020]

cowboy911 connects those with pets in livestock with folks that have land/space available
https://cowboy911.org/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/270203390408097/

Equine rescue/evacuation/hay funds etc:
https://www.facebook.com/FleetOfAngelsNews/

Thank you very much. You are just what is needed right now

 

[thepick4uchicks]

When my father was in the service, he said Red Cross would charge soldiers for coffee, but, the Salvation Army provided it free.

Somehow that does not surprise me. We have dealt with the Red Cross and some of their not so positive actions in our neck of the woods from results of tornadoes and hurricanes since we live in tornado alley and just up to the north of the Gulf Coast and our area Tupelo, Mississippi provides shelters for the hurricane victims but has been hit recently by two tornadoes in our area doing significant damage to homes in this city and surrounding counties. The Red Cross has not impressed us and it has not provided the majority of the aid. It had been other local communities and churches.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

Hi Folks, it's really thoughtful of you to start a thread on this issue. I'm in Oregon and volunteer regularly. The word is material donations are hard to organize, sanitize and distribute right now.

This link has an article and then an interactive map to see local charities
https://katu.com/news/local/want-to-donate-to-wildfire-relief-efforts-heres-how-you-can-help

This link is for fallen wildland firefighter's families:
https://wffoundation.org/

The Redcross is doing a bulk of the emergency housing right now so, monetary donations are good for that.

oregonfoodbank.org is also a place to start, they're really stretched thin right now.

Thanks for any and all help, it will be needed for many months to come, the fires are truly devastating.

Do you know how many firefighters have been killed or injured?