A Taste of Home

When I worked in the media, we always joked that no matter what the story, there was ALWAYS a Western New York connection. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that this was the first thing I saw when heading out to a bulk distribution site on Brooklyn's Brighton Beach:

Yep, that's our Emergency Response Vehicle from Niagara Falls getting ready to serve a hot meal to  residents still devastated almost three weeks after the storm, one of over 300 Red Cross vehicles working on the Sandy response. The volunteers inside weren't WNYers, at least not this time, but it's yet another example of The City (or should that be region?) of Good Neighbors coming through for those in need.

Brighton Beach is one of 15 fixed sites across New York City where the Red Cross is serving meals and water and distributing comfort and clean up kits with things like blankets, flashlights, mops and buckets this weekend. As of Friday, over 2.1 million relief items had been distributed and over 6.1 million meals and snacks have been served, and those numbers are going to continue to jump. In addition to Brighton Beach, I also visited a site at Red Hook, and was struck by the size of the line.

It's pretty clear that this response is going to last a long time. If you want to help, please visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-REDCROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to charge a $10 donation to your phone bill. The people here still need your help.