By Lauren Wanko
NJ Today
Nearly 1,500 miles away from the destruction left behind by the deadly tornado, donations are pouring in from New Jersey residents determined to do whatever they can.
“Well it’s a beautiful day so nothing better to do but to help others,” said Abundant Church of God volunteer David Jenkin.
“It’s very important to help and give when you can,” said Brick resident Lori Deforest.
The donations are delivered to the Visitation Relief Center in Brick. Launched after Superstorm Sandy, volunteers continue to work around the clock, supplying storm victims with everything from household items to clothes to furniture. These items will remain part of the Sandy recovery efforts. The relief center is asking the public for new donations for tornado victims, including new socks, new underwear, shampoo, conditioner and tarps.
“When we got on the ground for Hurricane Sandy we found that there were people who were in shelters and who were in schools taking showers and using facilities with a lot of other folks, and so having your own personal care products was really important to them,” said Relief Center Help Desk Coordinator Phyllis Nagy.
Monetary contributions remain a necessity.
“The best way, the immediate response is don’t self deploy, don’t send donations that haven’t been requested as of yet,” said Catholic Charities Disaster Response Director Maria Nikolatos. “The best way to donate is to do a financial donation and that doesn’t delay in them getting the necessary needs.”
Nagy isn’t surprised by the outpouring of support.
“Jersey is Jersey. We take care of ourselves, we take care of others. It was very hard in the beginning to take from other people cause we’ve always been givers and this gives us a chance now to give back,” Nagy said.
Giving back is especially important to Jersey Shore resident Maria Aveta.
“They came to us so we have to do something for them. And there’s little children and adults and they have lost everything, so we need to help them get some peace of mind,” Aveta said.
“I think we should give back to them because they were so generous to us,” Brick resident Brenda Gennaro said.
New Jersey residents are all too familiar with the destruction left behind by a natural disaster. Nagy says the memories of Sandy are still raw.
“We understand what they’re feeling. We know what the tragedy of going home and not having a home to return to feels like,” Nagy said.
The Visitation Relief Center already filled two truckloads of donations which will make its way to Oklahoma in the coming days.