Material Resources ships relief to Texas, seeks urgently needed donations of clean-up buckets

Church of the Brethren Newsline
September 9, 2017

Materials Resources staff prepare shipments for Texas. Photo courtesy of Terry Goodger.

Material Resources staff have put out an urgent call for donations of clean-up buckets for distribution by Church World Service (CWS). The program also has been shipping relief supplies to Texas to aid people who were affected by Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding.

Material Resources is a Church of the Brethren program that warehouses, processes, and ships relief materials on behalf of ecumenical partners including CWS, working out of warehouses at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.

Relief shipments

“We are shipping to the hurricane victims in Texas,” reported director Loretta Wolf. The first four truckloads of relief shipments have arrived in Texas or are on their way, she wrote in an e-mail report earlier this week.

Material Resources has shipped 51,000 hygiene kits, 422 clean-up buckets, and 510 school kits to areas of Houston. La Grange has received 72 clean-up buckets. Kingwood has received 300 blankets, 660 hygiene kits, and 6 clean-up buckets.

Today, the program is shipping 300 clean-up buckets, 75 blankets, and 240 hygiene kits to Corpus Christi; and 300 school kits, 1,140 hygiene kits, and 433 clean-up buckets to Taft.

On Monday, the program is preparing to ship 54 clean-up buckets to Houston, Texas, and 25,000 hygiene kits to Arlington, Texas, for prepositioning in preparation for Hurricane Irma.

The total weight of the shipments for Hurricane Harvey relief is 46,497 pounds or more than 23 tons, shipped on 7 trucks. The total weight of relief shipped in preparation for Hurricane Irma is 25,493 pounds.

Urgent need for clean-up buckets

CWS is in urgent need of clean-up buckets, both for the continuing response to Hurricane Harvey and flooding in Texas, and for the anticipated needs in preparation for Hurricane Irma. CWS is adding extra kit depots across the country to receive kit donations.

One depot is at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. Another place receiving kit donations is the Shenandoah District office at 1453 Westview School Rd., Weyers Cave, Va., where kit donations will be received from Sept. 19-29.

Financial donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) of the Church of the Brethren will help with the costs of shipping clean-up buckets, kits, and other relief goods. Go to www.brethren.org/edf .

For detailed instructions about the contents of CWS kits and clean-up buckets, and how to put them together, go to http://cwskits.org .

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