Joplin - How We Helped

I had really grandiose plans for all the donations everyone sent to me to help buy supplies for Joplin.  I wanted to take that money - $325.00 in all and go shopping using my bargain hunting skills, coupons and ads to get the most bag for our buck.  Apparently, the outpouring of help and donations was almost too much of a good thing.  The volunteers and workers of Joplin were overwhelmed with donations.  Where I live, about 80 miles from Joplin, all the donations trucks have closed up until further notice.  So, that left me with money and nothing to buy.  Then I heard about adopting a family.  That sounded like it was right up my alley and we could buy things specifically for a certain family, get to know them and make them a part of our family.  (By our, I mean my monkeybox blog family).  I signed up, but was informed that I was nearly the 4000th person to sign up so the chances of being assigned a family were slim since the adopters outweighed the adoptees. 

On to the next idea.  I found out that you could Adopt a Classroom - help send in money, books, school supplies, etc. to help out a specific class of kids.  Now, I really liked this idea.  Helping kids, helping a teacher - it all sounded good.  I thought we could send the kids things throughout the year and get to know them too.  If a specific kid had a certain need, maybe one of us could supply it if we had a child that age or a way to find that item.  This idea made me happiest of all.  I signed up and received a response with a form asking me to guarantee a certain amount monthly, so I think they are wanting corporations and companies to do this, not small fries like us. 

On to the next idea.  But, I was out of ideas.  Think, Shara, think!

Today the City of Joplin announced that there is a rare skin eating fungus making the rounds and three people have died.  They are asking for a stop in donations and volunteers until they can get a better grip on what is happening.  That part is super scary.  So, even if I bought things and took them there myself, they wouldn't let me in town to donate it.

Sigh. 

So, today I did some research and made some calls and discovered that they The Food Bank is doing the most good helping to get massive amount of donations of food to help feed the citizens and the homeless.  I decided to make a bulk donation of $325.00 to The Food Bank in our names. 

Donations



THE FOOD BANK FOR CENTRAL & NORTHEAST MISSOURI INC                    $325.00

This donation is designated to please help feed the people of Joplin.      Sub-Total:     $325.00

                                                                                                                             Total:      $325.00

I was able to specify how I wanted it used, so I specified to please feed the people of Joplin.  The website says that $1.00 buys 20 pounds of food.  So we just bought 6,500 POUNDS of food.  Yea, us!

I hope everyone that contributed is okay with what I decided to do.  Having that money and honest to goodness not being able to find anything to do with it was stressing me out completely.  I wanted to do something more tangible with it, but I know that it is being utilized for a very good thing. 

Thanks again to everyone for contributing and for helping out.  We all made a difference for at least a day and for a lot of people.  We fed families, kids, volunteers and workers. 

And, we didn't have to do the dishes!  :)

Thnak you to everyone that sent money and that trusted me to do the right thing.  You guys really made me feel loved!