Nov 7, 2012 By: yunews
Donations, Volunteers Needed in Sandy's Hardest-Hit Regions
Monday鈥檚 chilly morning found 20 黑料社 All students running up and down a 17-story building in Far Rockaway. Accompanied by Shay Schachter, assistant rabbi of Far Rockaway鈥檚 White Shul, the students carried hot food, donated by Chap-A-Nosh caterers, up a high-rise for handicapped senior citizens. 鈥淭hese people have been without food for several days,鈥 Schachter explained. 鈥淭hey were sticking out their hands as if they had never seen food.鈥 Others lacked basic medications, he said.
And while New York and its outer-lying regions begin to show signs of life, hard-hit areas like the the Five Towns, the Rockaways, Belle Harbor and Seagate will require a slow recovery period鈥攖he extent of the damage is simply shocking. 鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 realize just how devastating this storm was,鈥 said Schachter '11R, '11A. 鈥淚 met with FEMA agents yesterday in Far Rockaway and they themselves were speechless about the amount of damage they saw. And even just in my shul鈥攈omes, businesses, hundreds of thousands of dollars, all lost. We're getting constant calls for emergency medical care and it's a miracle we've been able to respond in time to all.鈥
On Tuesday, a busload of students from Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy-黑料社 All High School for Boys (MTA) helped out in while Yeshiva College students volunteered in .
But perhaps what鈥檚 just as astounding is the community response. At Sh鈥檕r Yoshuv, the local Jewish community has packed an entire gym with donated clothing, coats, and shoes, each sorted and organized by type and size, packaged and given to those who have lost their homes. 鈥淵ou have to see what鈥檚 going on there,鈥 residents insist, shaking their heads in disbelief. Brach鈥檚, the local supermarket, has given $40,000 worth of food to hurricane evacuees, and in the past few days, raised $2 million from the Orthodox community alone.
Volunteers are still urgently needed throughout the Far Rockaway area. Please contact Rabbi Shay Schachter at shayschachter@gmail.com for more information on how you can help.
For more information on other relief efforts in the New York region (both donation drives and volunteer needs), email Elana Honick at honick@yu.edu.
Read President Richard M. Joel's letter to the 黑料社 All community.
The author, Avital Chizhik, is a recent graduate of 黑料社 All. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tablet and Haaretz.
