Sept. 7 - Buried in Donations

We were up early this morning to drive the 50 miles south from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Van Buren, Arkansas (just north of Fort Chaffee). We were parked by 11 AM and ready to report for volunteer duty.

Local people told us that a volunteer sign up center had been opened at a shopping mall rather than have the military base overrun with signing people up. I located it on the map and off we went. When we arrived there the door we had been told to go in had signs telling us to go directly to the base instead...so we turned around and backtracked to Fort Chaffee.

At the gate of the Fort we were informed that whereas yesterday they had 7,000 evacuees in residence, they had succeeded in moving them all out and now were just cleaning up. If we wanted to "volunteer" we could report to a row of barracks where they were busy cleaning/disinfecting the rooms. We proceeded into the base but, instead of finding the cleanup crew, found a volunteer sign-in desk. There they directed us instead to a warehouse complex to sort donations.

We were greeted warmly and escorted into the complex of warehouses surrounded by mountains of wooden palates of "stuff". Some was new and some was just a hodgepodge of items.

Our job was to sort down the individual clothing items into boxes for women, women large, men, men large, kids, babies, towels, linens, mens shoes, womens shoes, etc, etc. You get the picture. We literally dug right in and immediately they caught me folding the clothes....WRONG...can't take that much time...just throw it in the box and move on. What a mess we had going. There were guys carrying in more sacks and boxes of goods. We were retrieving them to sort. Others made the rounds and took your boxes as they filled up. They were marked, taped and then carried over to be added to a new palate of boxes which were all designated "women" or whatever. Once the palate was full they shrink wrapped it and finally moved it outside.

During the day we had two different times when actual evacuee families came in with nothing but the clothes on their backs looking for additional items. We had a ball searching out items for them and seeing their reaction...there was one man who had lost his entire family...that is what I wished I had been doing all day but it is not how the day went.

It was frustrating to see so many items (donated by merchants and individuals) not yet in the hands of the people who so desperately need them. Since the bulk of the evacuees have already been disbursed throughout the state, they are not yet sure how they will distribute the rest of these items. There were literally mountains of baby strollers, playpens and such just sitting in the open. It is great that everyone was so generous but disheartening to see them just sitting there.

Update tonight on the news is that they have set up a center north of here in Fayetteville (where we just came from) as a statewide distribution center for donated items...as guess what...they want volunteers to help sort them...they already have 9 semi-trucks full of things up there waiting sorting.

We have decided to just rest up a day tomorrow and then decide where we go from here. What we did today was very exhausting as well as frustrating in terms of not seeing a substantial beneficial outcome from it.

Well time to shower my sweaty body and slide into bed.

Take care everyone...give your loved ones an extra hug tonight...A very good friend told me recently that life is far too short not to tell your loved ones how much they are loved...for her and for me...give them that extra hug and expression of love that is so very valuable and appreciated.