Feb 212013
 
Image source: Facebook.com.

Image source: Facebook.com.

Although Occupy Sandy’s Bay Ridge Kitchen at St. John’s Episcopal Church [461 99th Street] will be closing March 1, volunteers are still needed – especially in places like Sheepshead Bay and the Rockaways.

Occupy Sandy volunteers have been preparing hearty meals and delivering them to Hurricane Sandy victims around Brooklyn and beyond since November.

Months after Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal areas, the group continues to feed around a thousand people a day. They also maintain locations in Sheepshead Bay, Staten Island, and the Rockaways.

Click here for a list of places where you can make a difference by volunteering.

Dec 072012
 

Image source: Wikipedia Commons.

As an area that was largely spared from the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, Southwest Brooklyn continues to play a crucial role in the coordination of volunteers and supplies bound for storm relief and recovery efforts in other neighborhoods.

A news item in the 112-year-old Rockaway community newspaper The Wave highlights some of the work being done by students and faculty at Xaverian High School [7100 Shore Road] for the storm-ravaged peninsula.

From The Wave:

A uniform and everyday goods drive was organized immediately after the storm in order to help students return to their everyday school routines as quickly as possible. Additionally, faculty members have been aiding in the cleanup process in the areas hardest hit by the storm each weekend. Middle school students organized a wonderful drive to create customized care packages containing gift cards and everyday items that families lost during the storm.

The piece mentions how “the Interact Club,” a community service club at the Catholic college prep school sponsored by the Rotary Club of Verrazano, has “organized a bake sale and raffle in order to raise money for the Graybeards” – a basketball league-turned local aid organization in Rockaway.

Xaverian students have also reportedly put together a Toys for Tots donation drive aimed at children affected by Sandy.

Nov 292012
 

Occupy FEMA? Chepe of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Sandy “training” FEMA workers on Staten Island (Image source: Facebook.com).

More than a year after Occupy Wall Street first made international headlines by taking over Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the activist group has reinvented itself as an effective disaster relief organization.

In an online article for news magazine the Nation, reporter Ayasha Guerin documents the relief work Occupy Sandy has been undertaking in the storm-ravaged Rockaways. Unbeknownst to many, a Sunset Park church within walking distance of Bay Ridge is serving as a crucial link in the Occupy supply chain. Continue reading »