By Bob Grill, President, Disaster Aid USA and Paul Mahata, Co-Chair, District Disaster Relief Committee
District 7620 Disaster Relief Committee and Disaster Aid USA continue to coordinate disaster relief work locally, nationally, and internationally. In recent weeks, we have focused our attention on Hurricane IAN and Florida and resulting wind and flood damage there. We also continue to support Pakistan and Ukraine. We are helping the victims of these disasters, and we request that you and your club consider donating to DAUSA for these causes. We are also looking for volunteers to go to Florida. A disaster training for volunteers is being planned for the first weekend in December. See details below.
Florida Disaster: Our DG Sean McAlister sent out a P-mail to all Rotarians and Rotaracts in October requesting volunteers to join Florida deployments. Disaster Aid USA has three trailers stationed in the Fort Myers area. We have coordinated the deployment of multiple teams to Florida to clean out flooded homes in the Fort Myers area. Most recent plans to go to Florida are:
1) Oct 21 team, led by Steve Kemp (Greenbelt). Three volunteers from district 7620 joined him.
2) Nov 11 team, led by Russ Koon (WV). He will be joined by one volunteer from our district.
These and other teams coming from Texas, Louisiana, and California are being supported by the local Rotary district in Fort Myers area. The teams led by DAUSA experts are being supported by 30 to 50 local Rotarians in the weekends. This amount of cooperation between DAUSA and local Rotary clubs is unprecedented. Rotarians from Tampa, Orlando, and nearby cities are showing up to volunteer on a daily basis. The current emphasis is in clean up – tree removal, muck and gut, house drying, and roof tarping. No experience is needed to work in Florida as a volunteer. Team leads provide the direction and safety tips for helping in the clean-up process. If you are interested in volunteering, contact: Bill DuBoyce ( billydubes@hotmail.com ) or Paul Mahata ( Pmahata@verizon.net ).
Volunteer Training: District Disaster Relief Committee and DAUSA are coordinating to provide disaster aid training to new volunteers. Our goal is to have a cadre of 15-20 volunteers trained, so that when disaster happens, some of these volunteers will be ready to go and help locally or in other states. Our training will consist of: a) General information on disaster relief, b) Safety tips, c) Practical work involving mucking and gutting, and d) chain sawing. Volunteers may pick and choose on various training opportunities. Current date of training is: Dec 3 (Saturday, 10 AM – 4 PM). Contact: Bill DuBoyce or Paul Mahata above for further details. You are advised to register in advance as a volunteer of DAUSA. Now you have an opportunity to get information on all DAUSA deployments, if you SIGN UP as a volunteer by going to the following link https://volunteer.disasteraidusa.org It is a quick 5-step process that takes less than 5 minutes to complete. There is no obligation to volunteer; but it only helps spread the word quickly and to coordinate deployments.
In order for us to continue this type of disaster relief work now and in the coming weeks and months, each Rotary club and each Rotarian and Rotaract and their friends are being urged to donate generously. DAUSA is a 501-c-3 charitable organization, co-founded by our own PDG Bob Grill. All checks could be sent to: Disaster Aid USA, 9817 Lanham Severn Road, Lanham, MD 20706. To donate online, please visit www.disasteraidusa.org . Choose the option Hurricane IAN or other disasters. To make a donation via Facebook, go to: https://www.facebook.com/DisasterAidUSA