Fortunate Helping the Less Fortunate

I have never experienced a natural disaster like this ever before. Coming from Southeastern Pennsylvania, we do get storms, but the weather is generally very “mediocre”. Thankfully, my family didn’t suffer from the effects of Sandy nearly as bad as a majority of the Northeast. However, power loss was an especially concerning issue in my area.

Governor Tom Corbitt visited my town, Dresher, PA, while on a tour of sections of Pennsylvania that were most heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy. He stopped at my local grocery store, in the shopping center down the street from my house. It was strange to hear about this in the news (thanks to the generator!) while watching coverage on the storm. I couldn’t believe that my town was considered a “hard-hit” area. My local fire department responded to 72 calls during the storm. When I heard this I was shocked to hear that many buildings in my town had caught fire, many wires had gone down, and many trees had fallen into structures.

Luckily, my neighborhood suffered minimal damage.

On the contrary, the Staten Island region of New York suffered significant damage. Since my family was fortunate enough to have not experienced any major tragedy from the storm, my dad felt that it was necessary to help those who weren’t as lucky. He rented a large van and filled it with different survival necessities. Since my area did not suffer from the horrible gas shortage crisis seen in parts of New Jersey and New York, my dad was able to purchase 100 gallons of gas easily. My dad filled containers with gas and put them in his van. Along with the gas, my dad filled the van with various other supplies, including clean underwear. When you think of supplies hurricane victims would need, you don’t automatically think of “underwear”. However, as my dad listened to the victims’ stories, the need for clean underwear was a recurring theme.

My dad returned to Staten Island a second time a week later with a few of our family friends that also wanted to help out. This time bringing a lot of cleaning supplies to help the residents clean up the mess. He has told me some of the stories that the Staten Island residents have shared with him about their Sandy experiences. Many have lost their cars, pets, and homes. Their stories are truly heartbreaking.

I am so proud of my father for being so compassionate for these victims and for making a great effort to help out. Here is a link to an article a local newspaper wrote about my dad! http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2012/11/24/ambler_gazette/news/doc50aacdf4cb3af870466737.txt?viewmode=fullstory

There are THOUSANDS that still need your help! Please donate now at www.indiegogo.com/comm30sandy.


#COMM30Sandy is an online class project for the Media & Society class at Lehigh University, taught by professor Jeremy Littau. You can donate to our campaign at this link, and for more infomation you can email Prof. Littau at jeremy.littau(at)lehigh.edu.