Love for Red Hook

People gathering to split up into groups and deliver lights to people without power.

It's absolutely bananas outside. My roommate and I decided we were going to go down to the Red Hook Initiative to volunteer. There are still thousands of people that don't have power there. We decided to swing by the Park Slope Armory first. We walked into the space and it was filled with hospital beds. We were told they had enough volunteers for the moment but to come back at 8 and there would probably be spots.

We made our way to Red Hook and were immediately astounded by the insane number of cars waiting for gas. One woman saw me taking a picture and yelled, "Hey! You taking a picture of all us stupid people waiting for gas?" I went over and talked with her, and she said she had been waiting for hours. They said there might be gas at 4, but no one knew. They were waiting on the chance it might be true. If you guys don't know, we are currently in a gas crisis. Cars can only get $20 of gas on alternating days according to their license plate number.

Look left, huge line......                                                               Look right, front of line waiting for gas

We continued walking to Hicks Street and saw the make shift medical center with people running all over the place, piles of donations being sorted in the back. Everything was so crazy we couldn't find the right place to sign up, so we continued walking.

The Red Hook Initiative is an organization that helps educate adults in the area and provide resources to the people living in the projects there. They were inundated with people and donations. The organizer of the volunteering campaign said it was being manned by volunteers and funded by individual and private donations. They were not prepared for the outpouring of money, clothes, food, and generally just attention that the center was providing. She said when the power went out, they were the only ones with light, so people just started showing up. Cars were dropping off trays of home made food. People from the projects were sifting through bags of donated clothes. Volunteers flooded the streets. We were told 13 groups of 4 were being dispersed throughout the neighborhood to distribute flashlights and information about assistance. We missed the first wave and found it would be at least 2 hours before the next shipment of lights came in that would need to go out.


We left and decided the best way to help people out here was with money. They didn't need bags of clothes, there was already too much. They had bodies to go between buildings. At this point, they needed supplies. Food. Blankets. And the best way to purchase and transport those items would be to give money to organizations with cars and trucks that could distribute what the centers needed.

I am going to get on a shuttle bus tomorrow to go out to The Rockaways to help dig cars out of dirt and clean up neighborhoods that were destroyed. Stay tuned for more.