BRONX SENDS TRUCKLOAD OF BABY SUPPLIES, WATER, OTHER NECESSITIES TO JOPLIN TORNADO VICTIMS

Here is more on the heroic effort by Bronx volunteers to help the Joplin Tornado victims.

Gregory
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BRONX SENDS TRUCKLOAD OF BABY SUPPLIES, WATER, OTHER NECESSITIES TO JOPLIN TORNADO VICTIMS

Volunteer Corps effort made possible by generosity of local residents, businesses

BRONX, NY ― New York City Council Member James Vacca today announced that an entire truckload of baby supplies, children’s toys, bottled water, and other essential items is on its way to tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri, thanks to a group of super-volunteers and generous businesses. Wednesday morning, volunteers filled a box truck supplied by Baldor Specialty Foods with dozens of bags and boxes of donated goods during pick-ups at the Locust Point Civic Association and the Bronx campus of Mercy College. The pickups marked the culmination of a two-week collection drive organized by the Vacca Volunteer Corps that included donations from residents throughout the district and companies including Baldor, Manhattan Beer Distributors, and Penguin Books.

“It has truly been an inspiration to see so many people come forth and offer to help people halfway across the country,” Council Member Vacca said. “This has been a volunteer-led effort from start to finish, and it proves once again that all it takes is a little bit of will and dedication to make a big difference in other people’s lives.” Longtime Locust Point resident Gloria Lagalante, who led the collection at the Civic Association, also arranged for the Hunts Point-based Baldor Foods to donate one of its trucks to pick up the donations. Antoinette Acosta volunteered to lead the effort at Mercy College, where she is a sophomore. Assisting Acosta was Mercy career counselor Kathy Finneran. Baldor is arranging the delivery to Joplin through a Missouri-based supplier. Wednesday’s collection was hardly the end of the local donation drive. Lagalante and Baldor are planning another pickup next month, and Patricia Madsen of City Island, who inspired the Volunteer Corps effort by leading her own donation drive for Mississippi tornado victims in May, continues to accept donations.

Madsen is currently searching for a truck company that would be willing to deliver an 18-wheeler’s worth of clothes and other donations to either Joplin or disaster-ravaged regions of the South. Anyone with information that could help that search should contact Vacca’s office at (718) 931-1721.

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