IOWA FLOODS - IMMEDIATE RELIEF

Video Log 1: Assessment	Video Log 2: Returning to Iowa

UPDATE [ AUGUST 30TH ]

On Monday, August 4th, a 24'Budget Rental truck left Hawthone, California from the warehouse of Airline Ambassadors loaded with 8 pallets of supplies including clothing, hygiene kits, and school book bags. After loading the truck CAN-DO began transit to Denver, Colorado where we picked up additional, donated supplies at the Denver Childrens Home (LINK HERE TO DCH))))( a not for profit housing organization for abused and troubled youths). Along with helping to load the truck, the kids also provided homemade cards of encouragement for the residents affected by the floods.

On Thursday (Aug 7th), a truck left from Atlanta, Georgia to rendezvous with the truck from the west coast in Des Moines Iowa. The 24' Enterprise truck was loaded up with 6 pallets of water, assorted bulk cereal boxes, clothing, backpacks filled with school supplies, childrens games, toys and stuffed animals. The truck was loaded and driven by volunteer maverick Danny Wright. Danny volunteered his services after learning of the "Iowa Project" in late June and wanted to participate first hand. Hell of a job Danny!

Also, joining us on this weekend of distribution was Nicole Brown and Bob Putnam. Nicole who grew up in Iowa, flew in from south Florida and jumped into the swing of things. Bob flew in from New Orleans where is the Director of Operations for CAN-DO's Gulf Coast Projects.

Overall, it was a very successful project. We met more of the Oakville residents and were reunited with friends that we met on our initial visit to the area. We were able to fill many of the voids that these families are experiencing as they rebuild their lives and homes.

While in Oakville, CAN-DO received a call from Anisah David. Anisah has been connected with CAN-DO's efforts on the GulfCoast since 2005-2006. She and her brother Victor David help raise awareness of the injustices that are happening on the Indian Reservations in South Dakota. They asked if we wanted to participate in the Day of Dignity, an event that brings much needed supplies into their impoverished communities.

After our Oakville distribution, many boxes of clothes remained. CAN-DO with the encouragement from the people of Oakville, brought the remaining clothes to the people of Crow Creek. CAN-DO would like to thank the people of Oakville for putting aside their own suffering to reach out and allow us to bring aid to others that were also in need. Very cool!

On August 10th, CAN-DO loaded up the trucks and headed to South Dakota. CAN-DO is in the process of putting together our Crow Creek Project. Our first assessment was lead by Eric Klein, Bob Putnam and Cloe Kromwell. Please check out Project Crow Creek, Day of Dignity to see how you can get involved.

CAN-DO would like to thank our new partner organization, Airline Ambassadors for opening up their warehouses to CAN-DO and allowed us to bring even more much needed aid to the residents of Loisana County.

We would also thank the following:

-The residents of Louisa County/Oakville we would like to thank the following for making this project such a success...
-The CAN-DO Volunteers!
-Our supporters and donors
-Dr Rebecca Hay, the staff and the AMAZING kids from the DENVER CHILDRENS HOME
-Amy Bakari and the staff at IN MY PAJAMAS RADIO-
-Nancy, William, Sharon and the staff at AIRLINE AMBASSADORS-
-Danny and Danial Wright

Our Sponsors
BUDGET Truck Rental
ENTERPRISE Truck Rental
WAL-MART
THE HOME DEPOT
FRESH PRODUCE
FACEFINDER.COM

Our Partners on this project:
LATTER DAY SAINTS
TICKLED PINK FOUNDATION
FEED THE CHILDREN
AMBASSADORS OF CHILDREN
THE HOLY ROLLERS

THE INCREDIBLE PEOPLE OF OAKVILLE, IOWA...thank you!

Project overview-

-Monday, August 4, 2008:
CAN-DO leaves LA heads to Hawthorne, CA to pick up donations from Airline Ambassadors.
-Tuesday, August 5th:
CAN-DO arrive in the evening in Denver, CO and heads to Denver Children's home to pick up second supply load. Tuesday late night the truck from Atlanta leaves for Iowa
-Wednesday,August 6th:
CAN-DO loads the truck with boxes of new clothing donated Fresh Produce as well as other things donated from Airline Ambassadors. Wednesday evening we leave Denver head to Des Moines, IA to rendezvous with Danny/Atlanta truck
-Thursday, August 7th:
CAN-DO arrive in Des Moines early in the morning and meets up with 2nd truck out of Atlanta
-Friday, August 8th:
both trucks arrives in Wapello. We unload with the help Oakville residents. We make kits and reload trucks for Saturday's distro. 11:00PM Word of CAN-DO's distibution aired on local Iowa news stations.
-Saturday, Aug 9th:
Distribution day in Oakville from of the community center
-Sunday, Aug 10th:
CAN-DO, Assessment and plans for PROJECT CROW CREEK begin.

Past Post:

June 17th, 2008 CAN-DO successfully transports 96 dogs from an overcrowded shelter in Lindsay, CA (Dog Rescue-Project Waggin' Train www.can-do.org ) to St. Paul, Minnesota to waiting families and foster homes. Seeing that the situation in Iowa was getting worse, we decided to use the empty vans as transport vehicles to truck in supplies for the people affected by the floods.

CAN-DO reached out and asked for donations to purchase relief supplies. Eric Klein then contacted FEMA as well as Bob Hilde, who works at the Waterman's Warehouse distribution center in Dike, Iowa, to get an idea of any areas that may be getting overlooked. He told us a lot of communities along the river were in desperate need of immediate relief and that only a few designated drop-off centers have been set with far too many people to reach. We hit the local Target and Wal-Mart using donations we received to purchase vital items such as pallets of bleach, baby formula with iron, hand soap, paper towels, toilet paper, feminine products, diapers, baby wipes, wash cloths, gloves, cleaning products, pallets of water and Gatorade.

We traded Bob Hilde bleach and cleaning products for boxes of food and boxes of basic essentials put together by Feed the Children, and we hit the road. We headed out to the small towns we heard were in desperate need and the most coverage the national news is giving them is an aerial shot. We stopped where ever we could and handed out supplies to people as well as assessing the best strategy for needed distribution centers, then relaying our findings/information to the ground FEMA reps as well as Red Cross reps.

With help from VirtualVolunteer.tv a site created by Can-Do founder Eric Klein & Facefinder.com founder Erik Summers, we were streaming live on the internet allowing donors to actually see their money impacting the people's lives. We also had a radio show on www.Inmypajamas.net hosted by Amy Bakari that did a few live interviews tracking what we were seeing on the ground and getting to talk to the people there.

CAN-DO heard about the small town of Oakville, which lays between the Iowa and Mississippi rivers. It's a town of 439 people (118 under the age of 18). The residents had been told the flood waters would hit them on a Monday and only be as high as 2 feet, on Saturday night the Iowa river breached the levee and the water came flooding in so fast that within an hour the town was completely flooded and rose as high as 8 feet. The people of Oakville fled from their homes with basically nothing. The town was submerged for 18 days; there was no way of pumping the waters out as this ran the risk of flooding other towns further down river.

We arrived in Wapello, the neighboring town of Oakville, we found a local trailer park run by Nina an amazing woman who opened up her vacant trailers and welcomed Oakville families to stay. After dropping off supplies to the people there, Nina led us to a school field where a there were dozens of families in RV's and tents, camped out for over a week, sharing a single hose as a "shower". They were extremely traumatized from their whole experience as well as frustrated by the lack of aid or answers.

We decided that THIS was the place to set up our drop off center.

Out of the 181 houses and 22 businesses that are located in Oakville, 101 are considered destroyed and 92 sustained major damage. With the loss of municipal water and sewage, it is going to be a long time before these citizens are going to be able to call Oakville home.

CAN-DO is making a long term commitment to aid this town as they navigate through their current crisis and become a town again. CAN-DO is reaching out to these people and making it known that they will not be forgotten, we are returning to Oakville on August 4th and are bringing with us the immediate supplies that are desperately lacking. Water, Diapers, Baby Formula, Can and non-perishable foods, cleaning supplies, clothing, shoes, Tyvek suits, n95 face masks, rubber boots, school clothing & supplies for the youth returning to school in August.

We're putting out to call to action. NO donation is too small please help us in supporting these families.
YOU can make a difference and see it in action, watch us head back into Iowa with supplies and track the progress of your donations live via www.VirtualVolunteer.tv .

You will also have the opportunity to talk directly with the people you are helping.

Accountability is what CAN-DO is all about.

CAN-DO is a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization so your donation is tax deductible.
EIN/TAX ID# 20-1489454

Thank you for your ongoing support of our organization.

CAN-DO.org