Islanders Head to NY to Help with Hurricane Sandy

As Wednesday’s Nor’easter closed roads and halted ferry service on Martha’s Vineyard, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy was being pelted with Winter Storm Athena with freezing temperatures and snow.

Earlier this week, there was a coat and blanket drive here on the Island that gathered close to 500 coats and 500 blankets. One of the drop-off locations was 7a Foods in West Tisbury and as the coats and blankets began piling up, 7a Foods co-owner Wenonah Madison-Sauer started speaking more to those on the ground in the affected areas and doing a bit of research on her own. “When it first happened, I thought that by the time I made it to the area, there would already be so many people there that I wouldn’t be able to do anything, but that’s not what’s going on. There are still so many people - elderly people, newborn babies, without heat, without water, without food.”

Madison-Sauer found the Occupy Sandy Relief effort website that includes a list of items that are desperately needed and decided to take the coat drive to the next level. Also on that website is a Google document set up by Occupy Sandy that has a block by block listing of who needs what and where.

 “They need man power, and volunteers to come and clean up and deliver food.” So Madison-Sauer and her husband Dan Sauer are taking donations and will pack up as much as they can fit in their car and will head to Rockaway Queens on Friday.

“We will take what we can fit in our car and we’re going to volunteer to clean out some basements, serve and deliver food to the countless residents that haven't left their homes, despite having no power or water, for over a week.”

Madison-Sauer is hoping that others will feel moved to do the same thing. “I started reading about it and thought, how can we not go? Why don’t a bunch of us go? It’s only four hours away.”

Occupy Sandy has also set up an Amazon Registry that includes the most-needed items which will be delivered to a specific distribution point in Brooklyn.

The Madison-Sauer’s have come up with the following list of items they will be collecting at 7a Foods until 2 pm Thursday afternoon. They are asking that you stick to the list and make sure everything is in working order.

• Batteries
• Flashlights
• Blankets
• Masks (n95 particulate filtering faceplate respirator)
• Work gloves
• Diapers and wipes
• Sanitary napkins / Tampons
• Cleaning supplies including bleach
• Paper towels
• Toothbrushes & paste
• Deodorant
• Canned goods including soup and veggies
• Ready to eat food (cereal, power bars, granola, crackers)
• Baby Formula

The Madison-Sauer’s will work on transporting anything they can't fit in my car. Please let them know if you are interested in taking another car down.