Erica’s Blog

Just thought I’d pass along news from my good friend Terry in Houston about what’s needed to help all the refugees from Katrina.

IF money is to be sent you could send it to:

                                          3722 Plumb St

                                          Houston, TX 77005

                                      

with check for GHC Katrina Relief and we will make sure it gets directly to the people who are dispersing funds.Groups of churches are going in together to “RENT HOTELS” for the long term. Pretty cool really. We are all supporting mulitple shelters and high schools who are feeding people and specifically families who are now living among us and need help. They are coming in droves. Any thing will be helpful. If people want to send supplies….most immediate needs posted:

 

• diapers& wet wipes (they have been using newspaper or whatever they can get)
• feminine hygiene products
• toiletries
• peanut butter,single serving snacks, cereal bars
• batteries
• baby formula
• blankets
• towels
• water bottles 
• childrens books
• gas cards
• phone cards
• Walmart or Target cards

 

(Walmart, by the way, lost 100’s of stores and they continue to give like no other,) They are just opening their doors to people.

 

Texas is giving food stamps and food banks are the main source of the distributions, So everything we collect this weekend goes directly there. They don’t want clothes yet because they can’t carry a lot. The local charities are taking care of temporary clothing and shoe needs.

Massive clothing and shoe drives are going on here, but that will be a second tier need. Seems it would be easier from your distance to just send money! I know that’s not possible  for everyone, so prayers and encouraging notes would be great!

 

Right now we just are getting the full effect of the impact on Houston, with people who can’t go back to homes, offices, schools, ever. Apparently 80 percent of downtown New Orleans is just gone, and Biloxi is worse. Some small towns are completely gone.

 

I have to admit the Houstonians are a little nervous about the looting and “desperate mode” of the people coming in, so just pray for everyone’s safety and that we will see this all work out beautifully.

Just thought I’d pass along this info I received from Libby of The Preemie Project today…Just in case SOMEONE (such as my secret pal) wants to know.  Caveat:  I have no idea if this is true of all Target stores, but the info is worth passing along…

Target has bamboo knitting needles in their $1 bins right now.  They were just putting them out when I went there this morning.  They coordinate with some novelty yarns (small balls of different types of novelty yarn for $1).  The needles come in sizes 4, 11, 13 (maybe more, but I didn’t look through all of them).  I don’t know about the quality, etc. 

Kelly also stopped by Target and had this to say:

I was at Target today, and in the $1 section at the front of the store is a whole set of knitting items.  There are several types of yarn, some of which would be suitable for baby items as well as needles, crochet hooks, and even patterns.  It’s an awesome buy.  One of the books even has a baby afghan in it.  Can’t go wrong for a buck, can ya?

Here’s what I knit yesterday.  I was feeling the need to do some charity knitting after such a glut of felting.  The rose-colored one and the yellow one were made with some of the yarn from Merry.  I used the roll-brim preemie hat pattern (the “bulky” version).  As you can see, on the pinkish one, I added some openwork to make it more girly.  I like the roll-brim hats b/c they’re so fast to make, and I think they’re really cute.  The next few ones from that pattern will be smaller.

Grandma arrives tomorrow.  Got the ant stakes today, so the ants should be gone by the time she gets here.  Planning to finish up the cleaning today & tomorrow morning.  It will be great to see her.

BTW, Grandma, we need your flight info….