How You Can Help
If you’d like to donate money to the Katrina Relief fund here at Calvary,
please send your contributions marked “Katrina Relief” to
Calvary Baptist Church
755 8th St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Here are some other organizations to which you might be interested in contributing directly:
Cooperative Baptist FellowshipThe CBF currently has a disaster relief team on the ground in Baton Rouge, galvanizing the efforts of Baptists in the region. If you’d like to learn more, or if you’d like to contribute visit www.thefellowship.info
Find out about how Baptist churches are responding, and how you can help:
WWOZ 90.7 FM
New Orleans’ jazz radio station is currently up and running on the web. The destruction of the city is not just physical—an incredible cultural and musical heritage now hangs in the balance. If jazz music is a favorite of yours, if you have concern for the many displaced musicians (who often lived on the edge of poverty as it was), visit the WWOZ website to find out how you can help: www.wwoz.org
Calvary is also aware of specific, individual needs. Here are some:
A couple who left New Orleans to seek refuge in Shreveport were involved in a car accident. Now, in addition to uncertainty about returning home, lack of job and complete displacement, they are without transportation or funds to replace their car. Insurance workers are overwhelmed; finances are uncertain. Do you have a car to give? Can you offer an airline ticket for them to fly to this region to pick up a car? Do you want to give a gift specifically to help with this need?
Living on disability is difficult at best, but when you have to leave everything you own, give it up for a total loss and now find yourself maxing your credit cards to stay in a hotel or depending on the kindness of relatives, well, then the future looks scary. Help seems to be on the way from the Red Cross and other agencies, but in the meantime things are uncertain. Several folks in this situation could use help renting an apartment, Wal-Mart or Target cards to replace household and personal items, help with supplies for their pets.
A young single mom just starting her last semester of college has been totally uprooted. She’s been able to relocate and reenroll for the fall semester at another university, but now she has to locate and find a way to pay for childcare for her two year old. In addition to that, all the family’s clothing, supplies and household items were lost. This little two year old boy does not have any clothing, toys or other supplies, and neither does mom. It is hard enough to be a single mom on the best of days; this tragedy could be overwhelming. Would you like to help this mom get her household up and running or pay for childcare? How about making a phone call or sending an encouraging card?
There are several high school students we know who have had to relocate. Being a teenager is hard enough without losing everything you are familiar with. Would you like to reach out to a student in need, send encouragement, help that student replace clothing and supplies?
Entire families have been displaced and now face the loss of their homes. These are some of their concerns: “Besides the flood damage to all that we had in the basement den and laundry/ storage rooms, the toxic water that is standing in our house with no power for air conditioning or clean up, who knows what manner of mold and rot is undermining the foundation or plaster walls? We're not even sure our home will be inhabitable. In the short-term, we are concerned about how we will meet our major financial obligations: house note, car notes, insurance premiums, etc. Long term, we found out today that our home owner's insurance and flood insurance will more than likely not be enough to rebuild our house.” If you can think of a way to help it would mean a lot.
Elderly residents of New Orleans and their adult children are now facing critical challenges. With nursing homes and elder residences closed for the unforeseen future, people are scrambling to resettle their loved ones, trying to think of ways to reassemble their family living situations and being confronted with all sorts of emotional challenges. Caring for an aging parent is challenging in itself. This crisis has added a whole new dimension to the stress. Can you help in any way?
So many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. For some in this situation they can celebrate the goodness of their companies, who are willing to help them relocate and continue their employment. But resettling is never easy, with unforeseen stresses and expenses. Would you like to connect with someone in this situation, to offer help and financial aid?
Want to send money to a family that just could use some extra cash? We can give you a bank account number to wire funds directly to individuals.
Here are some general suggestions of how you can help:
Donate money to the general relief fund at Calvary, or donate to another organization that is helping.
Purchase gift cards for Target, K-Mart and Wal-Mart. These are national stores where folks could access groceries, supplies, medicines and clothing.
Purchase gift cards for gasoline from stations such as Mobile, Exxon and Shell. We can send them directly to folks who need them. http://www.svmcards.net/
Buy gift certificates to department stores like Sears, JCPenney and Dillards, to help people replace attire for work. Most people evacuated for what they thought was a few days; now, to restart work, they have nothing to wear. They’ll have to replace everything—clothing, shoes, accessories.
Commit to becoming a prayer partner and encouragers. Would you take the name of a family, couple or individual and stay in contact and in daily prayer for these specific people? This support will be so important in the weeks and months to come, not only as folks physically rebuild but as they work through the grief and pain of their incredible loss.
Calvary can help you make these direct connections. For more information email us: office@calvarydc.org. And we walk with these friends through this experience we will certainly have opportunity to discover and meet needs that the victims cannot now anticipate.
