Local church not surprised by community
’s desire to give
While Morgan Hill’s Janet Leach says she sees evidence of the community’s generosity every day, the outpouring of support for victims of Hurricane Katrina has been unprecedented.
“The community’s response the victims has been so overwhelming,” Leach said amid a sea of items donated by local residents for hurricane relief.
On Friday, Leach, with the local day workers volunteering their time, packed an estimated 25,000 items into boxes to prepare them for shipping.
Like other congregations and community organizations, St. Catherine’s called on members of the parish to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Leach said St. Catherine’s pastor, the Rev. Gene O’Donnell, was inundated with telephone calls from members of the parish, who, not satisfied with only donating money, also wanted to provide clothing, food and other necessities. O’Donnell asked Leach to act as a liaison for donations.
The church distributed flyers seeking new or near-new clothing, baby, hygiene, bedding and non-perishable food items to students at St. Catherine’s school and members of the parish.
“After that, the items just started coming until we ran out of space at the church,” said Leach.
By early this week, the parish and Leach’s home were deluged with donations. Leach had to rent a U-Haul and bring the items to the Day Workers Center on East Main Ave. and Depot St., where she, with the help of the day workers, packed the items.
“It’s touching to know many donations came from little kids who went to the store and bought many of these items,” said Leach. “Kids want to make a difference and this was a good opportunity for them to help.”
“The generosity of people in the community is so overwhelming!” she said.
She disclosed that a parishioner went to the Dollar Store and came out with hundreds of dollars worth of items.
“He said he just went around the store and thought about everything someone would need to live,” she said. “People are so generous, even these day workers. They saw me pull in with the truck and just started lending me a hand.”
By mid-morning on Friday, Leach and the workers had run out of boxes. They had already filled 100 containers. Thousands of items, including several mattresses, still needed to be packed.
O’Donnell said the church received nearly $20,000 for the hurricane victims in its collection during the weekend masses after the hurricane struck. “Besides this, many sent in their own money to other groups, like the Red Cross, and they still wanted to do more,” he added.
“There’s been a tremendous outpouring of care and generosity from the people I haven’t heard as big in the U.S. since Sept. 11. Our parish also responded to the tsunami tragedy in a very caring and generous way, but this is even bigger,” said O’Donnell. “The hurricane was closer to home, there were people who had connections there. They were surprised and a little bit frightened and the tragedy tugged at their heart strings. These are horrific conditions people there are facing, the loss of their homes and work.”
O’Donnell said even the Catholic churches at the Gulf Coast have been struck by tragedy. He knows of one case where a priest was literally washed out and drowned.
“We want to do more as a parish, but we’ll have to wait and see what the federal government will do and FEMA, and our own bishops, so we know how we can exactly help because this is going to be with us for the next couple of years, at least.”
The church, through Leach, is coordinating the shipping of the Morgan Hill church’s donations with another Morgan Hill couple who started their own relief drive for the hurricane victims.
Local residents Ryan Elias and his wife, Heather, were at the Gilroy Wal-Mart for two weekends seeking donations. They, too, can attest to the generosity of people in the area. Elias estimated they have received about 12,000 items which filled two horse trailers, their entire home and a shed.
From their post at Wal-Mart, Elias said donations poured in from people from Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin, Los Banos, Pacifica and as far as King City. And when businesses learned of the couple’s efforts, he said they too stepped up to the plate, with Morgan Hill Print Shop donating flyers, the Gilroy fire department donating clothes, Morgan Hill Home Depot donating materials for signs and Gilroy’s Hometown Buffet, feeding nearly 40 volunteers who helped Elias for over two weekends.
Elias’ company, Fox Racing of Morgan Hill, agreed to help ship the donations to Multi-Agency Staging Area, a hurricane relief warehouse in Jackson, Mississippi.
Leach, a longtime Morgan Hill resident and volunteer in the community, is very much aware of the kindness of people in Morgan Hill.
“I’m not surprised I see it all the time,” she said. “The community always comes out. Morgan Hill is so good about helping other people in need.”
Rose Meily is the City Editor for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach her at 779-4106 ext. 201 or by e-mail at rm****@mo*************.com.
