In response to the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornadoes, the New World Flood Organization, which promotes community service and giving among students, will be gathering supplies and delivering them next week to those affected.
The deadline to donate items is Friday at 4:30 p.m. with the nearest drop off boxes for East Lansing residents at the Lansing City Market, Clay Warehouse Inc. and East Lansing City Hall.
Megan McFarland, who is East Lansing’s assistant to the city manager, said they are looking for people to donate cleaning supplies or personal hygiene equipment. Some examples of the donations include shampoo, soap, deodorant, trash bags, flashlights and work gloves.
TJ Duckett, who is one of the co-founders of the New World Organization, said people all over the world can use the organization’s help and assistance to get back on their feet.
“Don’t let the boundary or distance stop you from effecting someone else’s life,” Duckett said. “Our organizations’ motto is ‘a single raindrop is a beginning of a flood.’ That one volunteer can always spark many others to join.”
Heather Sheets, who is the other co-founder of the New World Flood Organization, said they started their relief efforts the moment Hurricane Sandy hit the United States last year, and it took off like a wild fire.
“This tornado relief effort we are doing now is another way of developing our plan as an organization to contribute to helping out in any way possible,” Sheets said. “We are getting a great response from the community, because donations serve as an alternative for those people who don’t want to give their credit card information out.”
McFarland said the city hall became a donating location for the tornado relief effort after a resident called in and offered to give away some of his heavy duty trash bags. From there, McFarland contacted Sheets to make the location a legal donating site.
“We are in a pretty central location,” McFarland said. “People are usually coming in and out of the city hall, so we figured our site would be convenient for the residents from around here to donate to.”
Human biology senior Danuelle Calloway said she has not donated to the tornado relief effort, but thinks it’s great to give back to those affected in Oklahoma.
“It’s hard to prepare for something like a tornado, you never really know how much destruction it would really cause,” Calloway said. “I saw in the news people filling up paint cans to fill up bathroom supplies and things to clean up with — that right there can make a difference.”
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