Local relief efforts show few signs of slowing

In the weeks since Hurricane Katrina bombarded the Gulf Coast, people in Orange County have worked in creative ways to answer calls for relief.

People have donated truckloads of supplies, turned out for fundraising events and even stood in line for hours to get ice cream and pizza to help the efforts of several key aid organizations.

And they aren't done yet.

The Orange County Red Cross, 101 Ephesus Church Road, has collected more than $60,000 so far. Executive Director Rosetta Wash said the chapter expects funds to keep coming in as events continue.

Ram Book & Supply, 306 W. Franklin St., is encouraging students to sell their textbooks to the store, and the money will be donated to the Red Cross.

The store has raised about $600 so far - 100 percent of book prices, Manager Steve Thurston said.

He said the store also is trying to get professors who have desk copies of their own textbooks to sell them to the store and donate the money.

And other places are bypassing the county's Red Cross chapter and sending checks straight to the national chapter.

On Sept. 7, Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta, 163 E. Franklin St., offered to donate its profits to the Red Cross and raised $6,400 - which they sent to Washington, D.C.

As of Sept. 12, the Red Cross Web site states that the organization had received $609.7 million in gifts and pledges for the relief effort.

County residents came out in droves Labor Day when Maple View Farm offered to stay open and donate all proceeds - everything from the cost of ingredients to employees' salaries - from the day to the Salvation Army.

Even with little publicity, the company ran out of ice cream at its Carrboro store.

Between its three locations, Maple View donated $30,000 to the Salvation Army.

While the Red Cross and Salvation Army are good conduits for funds, some activists want to play a more direct role.

Katrina Ryan, a Texas native and candidate for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, said she felt a special pull to assist her friends in the Democratic Party who are working with evacuees in shelters in Texas.

Ryan collected and organized boxes of supplies to make them more comfortable: blankets, towels, pillows and toiletries. For children, they added diapers and coloring books to pass the time.

She helped drive the boxes to Texas last week and now is working with the Orange County Democratic Party to send even more supplies.

On Wednesday afternoon the party is collecting basic supplies in the fellowship hall of Binkley Baptist Church, 1712 Willow Drive, to send to Covington, La., where the Veterans for Peace have set up a camp on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.