Donations and Volunteers

I am trying to get the official word on what to do with donations and volunteers.

I just received this from WV DHS, “WV VOAD in coordination with Volunteer WV have acquired access to a warehouse to accept and manage donations. The coordination efforts are not complete, and they are not yet ready to accept donations. They are hoping to have everything set up by tomorrow. As soon as I get confirmation from the donations management team, I will let all of you know when it is appropriate to send the donations your counties have collected.”

With that said, we have delivered two truck loads and a trailer load of cleaning supplies, water and food into two counties that I have been working with that needed supplies. The counties needed it and knew it was coming. This is important. Do not just drop off supplies anywhere without their previous approval. I have heard of no one asking for clothing. Do not drop off “yard sale” stuff unless someone asks for it. There are usually not enough resources at the reception centers to do anything with clothes. In past disasters they have had to pay for dumpsters to come and haul it away! If you find a specific need for clothing, please act upon it!

The most needed item is money. This can be used to purchased exactly what is needed such as medicine, eye glasses, hearing aids, special foods, etc.. There is a secure and dependable way to handle the donation of money. Go to www.volunteerwv.org and you will be given an opportunity to properly donate to a specific cause.

Many of you are asking how to volunteer. Please don’t just show up unless the receiving agency is aware and prepared to utilize your services. Currently, the only opportunity I can recommend is to go to www.volunteerwv.org and register. This is the group that is heading up the volunteer response.

We do have our SAR team’s cadaver dogs working in the disaster area.

Please call, email or text me with any questions.

Tom Cooper

tjcooper@frontier.com

(304) 771-3674