09/07/05: The project hits 70 duffels

This afternoon, Kendall had a crowd at her house assembling the rolling duffels for distribution!



Safisha (left), Lynae (center) and Leigh (right) put together 40 bags today. We weren't sure we'd get them all delivered into the hands of families today, but we went ahead and got them all ready.



Once the bags were loaded, Kendall headed down in one car, her friend Emee headed down with bags in her car, and I met them both down at Reunion. Weekdays are a bit more challenging than the weekends, as we have kid's carpools and such to deal with.

The beauty shop wasn't "open" today, so our immediate successful access point wasn't available to us. That's been a marvelous place to distribute the rolling duffels, because it's filled with women and children. So instead, we scoped out the area, and just widened our range beyond our usual spot.

We headed to a busy area around the side of the arena. This was a distribution point for clothes, towels, and so forth. People were leaving the area carrying bags of items, and then heading back to the either the entrance of Reunion Arena, or to the Convention Center. While we were there passing out bags, we met a nice, helpful man acting as a medic named Lamar. He gave us a feel for what was going on in that area, and helped us hand out the rolling duffels in this new area. Things were a bit different here; we were getting approached much more than we had previously.

We met a lovely woman named Antoinette. She was with her two daughters and her grandson, a beautiful little boy. They were picking up a few items, and also looking for the medical area. The baby was running a touch of a fever, and they needed to find out if it was just a teething issue, or something requiring more attention.

We also met a woman named Renee, who was being accompanied by Lamar. We approached Renee when we noticed that Lamar was pushing a large box of things she'd collected in a wheelchair. Renee was having some medical issues, and carrying the box of items was beyond her abilities. We helped her place everything into her rolling duffel, and hoped that the rolling duffel helped her a bit. While Renee was facing some challenges with her health, she was still selfless - as we were helping her load her belongings into the bag, which she initially was hesitant to accept, she'd even considered putting some baby clothes back that she's picked out, because she thought someone else might need them, too.

We also met Cassandra and her four children. They were walking away from the "shopping" area with a few grocery bags in their hands, so we asked if they could use the rolling duffel. Cassandra and her kids couldn't have been nicer. They'd been at the Superdome in New Orleans, and had brought suitcases and belongings with them, just like they were asked to. But when the buses came to evacuate them, Cassandra was forced to leave her rolling suitcases behind - they would not allow them on the bus. Her boys were charming. My four-year-old son Callahan was with us on this trip, and he was attracted to the Buzz Lightyear doll that one of the boys had picked up. The boy actually offered Callahan the Buzz Lightyear toy! We told him thank you, what a nice offer, but he should go ahead and hang on to it, since it was a pretty cool toy.

As we were leaving the shelter, with 32 bags delivered, we saw a young teenager entering the arena with a huge garbage bag slung over his shoulder. One more, we decided. Emee jumped out of the car and tried to catch the young man before he entered the arena. She reached him just as he made it to the front security table where they check bags before allowing entrance. As Emee walked away, she heard the security woman tell the young man, "Oh, good, you got a bag - and they put some good stuff in here for you!"

TOTAL ROLLING DUFFELS DISTRIBUTED AT REUNION ARENA TO DATE: 70