Two northern Westchester Farmer's Markets will be collecting donations this Saturday from 9-1, and next Saturday the 17th at Gossett's Winter Farmer's Market, 1202 Rte 35 in South Salem, and the Mt. Kisco Winter Farmer's Market at St. Mark's Church, 85 East Main Street in Mt. Kisco.
Supplies will be gathered at Thornwood Self Storage, which is also accepting supplies to go to relief efforts. (M-F 9-6, S/S 10-5) Supplies will be delivered to locations designated by the Occupy Sandy and Rockaway Emergency efforts.
Please bring the following donations:
- First Aid supplies (new, sealed, labeled)
- Carbon monoxide detectors
- Blankets
- Flashlights, Candles
- Water
- Batteries
- Diapers and Wipes
- Work Gloves and Masks
- Rubber boots
- Shovels
- Cleaning supplies and bleach
- Trash bags and Quart and gallon Ziplock type bags
- Large clear plastic containers to put sorted supplies into
- Serving dishes and utensils
- Generators
NO FOOD or CLOTHING WILL BE ACCEPTED
If you would rather donate $ that will go to Rockaway Emergency Plan busses that are bringing volunteers out and back to do clean up work, please visit this site.
This effort is coordinated by Tara Santoro, Heather Flournoy and Sandra Giordano-Lena. Each of these women realized they had an opportunity to combine the power of their workplace resources with their community resources to make a difference in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. All three love food and farming and are community builders. Tara works weekends with Gaia's Breath Farm stands at Westchester farmer's markets.
Her weekday job is at Thornwood Self Storage. Hearing about Sandy relief efforts she immediately saw a role that the self-storage place could play-- a place to gather goods to be taken to Rockaway and other places hard hit.
Sandra can be found weekends at John Boy's Farm stands, and manages the new winter market in Mt. Kisco. She realized that this was a perfect place to get people to donate items. During the week she works at Wittus Design in Pound Ridge, NY, a town that has had a higher percentage of residents without power for longer than any of the other northern Westchester towns. Sandra opened Wittus' doors and fired up their super efficient woodfired stoves to the community for warmth.
Heather Flournoy can often be found at an area farmer's market on a Saturday morning, gleefully shopping for local foods and chatting with friends about ideas for her community network, Katonah Green. During the week she works for Energize NY home energy efficiency program. (notice a theme yet?). When she saw that both of her friends Tara and Sandra had posted ideas on Facebook about gathering goods to go for Sandy relief efforts, she decided to jump in and bring it all together. Her co-worker Elyssa Rothe had already been very involved in relief efforts and revealed how much citizen action was desperately needed in the Rockaways and how uncoordinated the Red Cross efforts seemed to be. Heather spoke with one of Energize’s home energy efficiency contractors and mentioned the effort. Mike from Bright Home immediately offered up a truck and some guys to collect items and deliver them to the Rockaways. This effort will continue until the areas hit by Sandy have been restored to the point of self-sufficiency.
Tara says “Just do something and do it now.” Sandra says “I just want to help any way I can, and I hope you’ll help the effort be successful.” Heather says “We are all more powerful than we ever imagined when we join forces.” In essence, just bring stuff out to the market closest to you this Saturday!
Questions? Call the team at 914-589-6615 or email heather@energizeny.org
