Rotary, other groups help Harvey victims
Lake Travis residents and organizations have stepped up to help Texans who have been displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary sent out calls for canned goods, towels and water on social media, and the night of Aug. 29 parked a massive military truck outside Lakeway Church to load up the donations to take toward those places in the path of the storm’s destruction.
“A lot of people were there to help,” Melinda Osburn said. “Some of those towels were brand spanking new. Two ladies kept going back into the store to buy stuff . ... When you’re that devastated, you don’t want a Goodwill towel, you want a brand new towel.”
Lakeway Church Christian Preschool Assistant Director Kelly Leonard sent out an email to parents asking them to bring supplies and said she was stunned by the response.
“I did a big email, and within two or three hours we had parents showing up with items,” Leonard said. “It was very cool to see the outpouring of support not only of preschool parents but also the community. They wanted to do something, but they didn’t know what to do . ... So when they saw our post on Facebook, they jumped at the chance. These parents here are so giving, and they have so much resources to pull from, and they went out of their way to get stuff.”
Leonard said that one 9-year-old Lakeway girl, eager to help, used her birthday money to buy supplies for evacuees.
Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary also brought other items such as toothbrushes to the Austin Disaster Relief Network, a nonprofit network of churches in the Austin area that organize in times of crisis. Lakeway City Council Member Jim Powell has volunteered with the network for years, working as the disaster relief coordinator for Lakeway Church. Powell also works with the Christian Compassion Center, which collects items from retailers willing to give during disasters.
“Recovery is going to be a marathon with so many homes destroyed along the Gulf Coast,” Powell said. “Corporate America is opening its heart with truckloads of goods to the Christian Compassion Center. Our challenge now is finding warehouse space to put all these goods ... some of it is for immediate needs, feminine products, diapers, baby formula ... but other truckloads are building supplies, shingles, roofing material, floor tiles. Those items we won’t be able to use for at least three months until the rebuilding process starts.”
To learn more about the Austin Disaster Relief Network, go to adrn.org. To learn more about Christian Compassion Center, go to c3austin.org. To learn more about Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary, visit laketravisrotary.org.