Residents reaching out to help Katrina victims
By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer
 joe hu/town crier Mountain View resident Christina Jasper prepares clothes and supplies for delivery to victims of the New Orleans disaster. Her first shipment left Thursday. |
For Christina Jasper, the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is personal.
The Mountain View resident, who relocated to the Bay Area from New Orleans a few months ago, has taken on the task of collecting clothing and supplies for former co-workers, friends and their families who lost their homes or have been displaced by the Aug. 29 disaster.
Jasper felt compelled to help because she knows some of the faces and stories of those affected by the hurricane.
“For me to handle it, I have to do something, and this is my something,” she said. “A lot of these clothes are going to the people who helped me, who made me feel welcome when I moved to New Orleans.”
Jasper is among a host of Los Altos-area residents, schools, organizations and businesses who have reached out to the hurricane survivors.
Major relief organizations like the Red Cross are asking for monetary donations only, but Jasper is asking for nearly anything people are willing to donate. Her first shipment was mailed directly to friends and co-workers on Thursday and contained items that her peers and colleagues had requested in addition to clothing that she knew would fit them.
“I just spoke to a friend of mine, an elementary schoolteacher who had to leave all of her belongings behind,” Jasper said, “and she was in tears when she heard about everyone’s contributions to help her.”
Any additional clothing and supplies that are left over Jasper will send to the Building Owners and Managers Association in Houston, which is channeling supplies through various shelters. She plans to auction collectibles and designer clothing that she has received as donations on eBay. She will use 10 percent of the proceeds for shipping costs. The rest will be given to the Red Cross.
Most of the people she is sending clothing to are displaced schoolteachers. One teacher has set up a temporary elementary school in the Astrodome and has managed to track down some of his students. He has asked Jasper to send clothing and toys for the children, many of whom come from impoverished families in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. The packages will be sent to the hotel where he is staying near the Astrodome.
Jasper said the teachers she has spoken with are worried that many of their students who lived in the Ninth Ward didn’t make it out because they were too poor to afford transportation out of the city. Most of them came from families that were not planning to evacuate.
Jasper’s work as a mechanical engineer in New Orleans brought her to Ninth Ward schools, notorious for their rundown, dilapidated condition.
“A good thing that will come out of this is hopefully the schools will be demolished and the kids will get new schools,” she said.
In the meantime, Jasper plans to carry on with her personal relief effort and to hold on to warm memories of the city she cares about.
“It’s hit me hard,” she said. “It’s a place I fell in love with. It was home.”
Jasper’s employer, Johnson Controls Inc., has sponsored the first 10 boxes to be sent out. But she needs more sponsors and estimated that each box costs $20 to ship. She can be contacted by e-mail at chrisiaj@yahoo.com.
Elsewhere, Springer School parents and students raised $1,000 in one day from a bake sale. The proceeds will go to Red Cross efforts to help Katrina evacuees. In addition, parents and students gathered boxes of books and drawing materials for children still housed in the Houston Astrodome. One dad’s company offered to send the supplies directly.
Meanwhile, Lou Fazo, sales manager with the Residence Inn by Marriott along El Camino Real in Los Altos, said the hotel has given four hurricane survivors “who lost everything” extended stays at the hotel.
Lois and Herman Alugas, son Gregory and Lois’ mother Ernestine Tyler, 93, arrived in Los Altos after the Red Cross solicited area hotels for help. The Alugas family left their lakefront area home of 36 years just before the hurricane hit.
Lois Alugas was grateful for the support, which included donors paying for additional time at the hotel. “They’re trying to do everything imaginable for us,” she said. “We’re really blessed.”
The family is hoping for the best, but so far, “no one has been able to get into our area,” Alugas said.
The close proximity of Residence Inn to Stanford Medical Center is helpful to the Alugas family because Ernestine is in need of dialysis treatment.
The family has a relative in the Bay Area who is also helping.
Meanwhile, the Palo Alto Area chapter of the American Red Cross has deployed five Los Altos residents directly to the scene. According to Trish Bubenik, executive director of the Palo Alto chapter, Los Altos resident Vinnie Biberdorf is the day manager at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., with nearly 7,000 clients. Another Los Altos resident, Dana Norris, joined Biberdorf at the shelter last week. In total, the chapter has deployed 21 volunteers.
The other Los Altos residents deployed are Kent Taylor, Joan Hadden and Judy Boore. Bubenik said the local Red Cross has raised more than $400,000 thus far to aid Katrina victims.
For more on local relief efforts, see page 7. For more on what local schools are doing, see page 25.
