WOOD RIVER - A local organization is collecting donations for hurricane relief.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Churches on the Streets is collecting nonperishables, hygiene products, water, first aid items and more, which volunteers will then drive to North Carolina and Florida. Angela Valdes, executive director of Churches on the Streets, explained how the community can help them help the people impacted by recent hurricanes.
“We have a truck, and my husband and I and another couple of volunteers are leaving tomorrow for North Carolina,” Valdes said. “We just got back, and we’re going again with a truckload and a truck and trailer. And then Sunday, we’ve got our son-in-law and a volunteer heading down to Florida, taking supplies and doing relief and connecting with our teams down there.”
You can drop off supplies at Home Town Storage at 209 Old St. Louis Road in Wood River until 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. The organization will also be collecting items from 3–6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, and again from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3–6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
Valdes explained that Churches on the Streets started in 2013 as a homeless outreach in St. Louis. They soon expanded to cities in Illinois, Missouri and southwest Florida. Valdes is a human trafficking educator, so the organization also works with local first responders to help survivors. Churches on the Streets began volunteering with disaster relief efforts not long after the organization was formed.
With teams in Florida, Valdes noted that Churches on the Streets was greatly impacted after Hurricane Ian in 2022. Local volunteers are anxious to connect with the Florida teams after Hurricane Milton’s landfall this week. Meanwhile in North Carolina, fallout from Hurricane Helene has been enormous.
“This last one in North Carolina was like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Valdes said. “We helped 1,200 people in one day. We decided, because we assess the situation each time, that our time was more valuable to come back and start over, come back to our community that’s so generous and helpful, gather more supplies, and then send them out in different directions. And of course, with Florida just getting hit, we knew we had to go into action and be ready for that, too.”
Churches on the Streets will continue to collect donations through the weekend; you can see a full list of needed items on their official Facebook page. You can also visit their official website at ChurchesOnTheStreets.com to make a monetary donation or learn more about the organization’s work.
“It’s hard to say when you’re looking at it all out here now, but we have just so many pallets of incredible donations,” Valdes added. “We’re thankful because now we can keep the momentum going…People say, ‘We wish we could go.’ And I said, ‘Well, if you’re giving, you’re going with us.’”
More like this:
