BLANKET DELIVERY UPDATE
and TRAVELOGUE -
March 17, 2006

[click here to see photos of the second delivery ]

Dear Friends,

It's been exactly 3 months since the first delivery and my first views of Cameron Parish in southwest Louisiana. I had the privilege of making a second delivery of your donated blankets on Friday, March 17 to the same area.

A few weeks before the delivery I made contact with Julie Burleigh at the Cameron Emergency Operations Center (EOC). She was an excellent resource for getting in contact with the residents who have begun returning to Cameron Parish so I knew that I'd be getting blankets into the hands of the right people. My original plan was to collect names and addresses and drive around to homesites and make the deliveries. However, there are very few street signs left in the area, so that made that idea difficult. Julie suggested that we put the word out and have residents meet us at the EOC to pick up their blankets. I'm happy to report that that worked exceedingly well!

My family and I, along with our friends Jeryl and Ruthann, arrived at the EOC at 10:30 on Friday morning and before we even opened the door on our U-Haul trailer, two ladies arrived to pick up their blankets. These were two ladies that I had conversed with via email and it was such a pleasure to meet them face-to-face! They were so grateful for their blankets and seemed just as happy to meet us in person as we were to meet them.

Since I had received a list of residents before arriving, I had bagged up blankets for each family and tagged them with their name. It worked very well to be able to hand a person their pre-filled bag when they arrived. In addition, I had about 50 extra blankets that weren't pre-bagged and we laid all of those out on a table. When a new person would arrive (who wasn't on the list) they were able to browse through the remaining blankets and choose just the right one.

Even with the extra blankets I had, I still didn't have enough to meet the needs of everyone who arrived. I had a shortage of adult-sized blankets and began taking names and addresses for future shipments. In the end, I ended up with 57 requests for blankets -- almost all of those are adult size. I'm confident that the needed blankets will arrive over time. I'm going to continue spreading the word to new avenues so all of you wonderful people can have a break!!

There is still a massive amount of destruction in Cameron Parish, but I was happy to see many signs of clean up and rebuilding. Many folks have FEMA trailers on their property, or have set them up into makeshift mini-neighborhoods. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to wake up each day and see the devastation all around you and face another day of work and clean up.

We were so privileged to meet so many folks and hear their stories -- and what amazing stories!! We learned about a mailbox that was picked up and moved 50 miles and put into the ground as if it belonged in the new location - complete with the mail still in it! We learned about a hutch full of china that ended up in the marshes -- the windows on the hutch were intact and all of the china was unbroken inside. We learned about the difficult effort to find missing caskets or to identify caskets found in fields. We heard many stories of frustration with the insurance companies and the inability to make claims. Yet, we also heard many stories of neighbors helping neighbors and the close-knit community binding even closer together. The signs of resourcefulness are everywhere -- including where we ate lunch: The Hurricane Cafe. :-)

I received so many hugs of thanks and genuine gratefulness. People were always struck by the fact that the blankets were from all around the US. One lady picked up 3 blankets for her and her two children and the blankets were from Georgia, Oregon and California. I could see that it really meant a lot to her to know that folks from all over the US are thinking of them. It's almost not fair -- you all do the work of making these blankets, but I get the wonderful job of delivering them for you. I'm definitely the lucky one!

I want to give a special thanks to my husband and two children. They have been so supportive with this project and all of the logistics, all of the blankets taking over the house, all of the tagging of the blankets, and all of the hours in the car. I also would like to thank our friends Jeryl and Ruthann for traveling with us for this second delivery. It was a pleasure to have the company and the help. I also want to thank my parents, Bill and Alonda, for loaning us their car and helping with the finances of the trip.

But most especially I want to thank YOU -- the blanket makers across the United States. YOU are the ones that make this project possible, and YOU are the ones who are bringing warmth and comfort to these folks. Blessings to you all!

Very sincerely,
Heather Foeh

 

[click here to see photos of the second delivery ]