Donation Drop Off. Part 2!

by Laura Leary

Less than a week later the boxes arrived I'm Somers Point, NJ at my mothers house. Luckily she was not there for the delivery of all 7 boxes. I put her through enough in high school to have to deal with that ;)  My step dad and brother were there to load the front porch with all the donations. Thanks guys!

Now I had to figure out where everything would be going. My goal was to hand deliver clothing/jackets/bedding to people locally. I really wanted to experience the feeling of giving back and receiving smiles and maybe a hug (who doesn't love hugs!?). Unfortunately by the time I reached New Jersey clothing was in much less demand. Some donation places were no longer accepting clothing. Mainly money and/or house hold items. This left me a little flustered because I really had no idea how to distribute 400lbs of donations properly.

I decided the easiest thing was to do two large drop offs. One close by to the Atlantic City Rescue mission which is always in need of warm clothing etc. The city had been hit by the storm so I can know that the donations would go to good use there for many people.
I did a little research, joined Facebook groups with donation informations and finally found the next best option. The Trenton Rescue Mission had lost a lot of their inventory due to a roof collapse therefore donations were much needed there. I called my older brother Scott, who works in Trenton and told him that I would be making the drive up there. He said he would happy to help me once I got into town.
My dad and I hopped in the car and drove two hours north to donate the rest of the goodies.
All in all the drop offs were quite easy. I would have liked to have arrived a week earlier to find personal homes for these donations, but I am so happy that we could help in this way. There are not enough words for my gratitude towards everyone that was involved in the process.

While I was in town I got to see some of destruction that Sandy had  of Jersey. I saw endless amounts of people's belongings out on the street covered with mud from their basements. I don't know what the inside of these homes looked like but I can't even fathom what a lot of people are going through now and for many months ahead. There are still many places in NY and NJ that are suffering from this storm. If any of you have information of Sandy Relief please share with us! We want to continue to help as much as we can. We all have the power to make a difference so let's share the power and start mass compassion.

Click HERE to see all our photos from this project!