Rye Area Residents Seek Ways to Help Others

Several Rye and Rye Brook residents have already started emailing asking if we know how they can help. Thousands across the county are still suffering with no electricity as temperatures drop, damaged homes and lost possessions. Many more are dealing with completely devestating situations having lost everything in their homes.

Use this space to ask for what you need and offer what you can. Connect to each other and find out how you can join the widespread efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

To find out how you can join the Red Cross's efforts to help, click here. You can also check out www.volunteer-center.org/sandy and www.volunteer-center.org/n2n  for volunteer opportunities.

Additional volunteer rescources: New York Cares, UJA Federation of New York Sandy Relief Fund, and Occupy Sandy Relief.

If you or your organization will be organizing cleanup, restoration or donation efforts, please leave the information in the comments. We will compile the comments to create anarticle with all the necessary information. Please include a contact name and email.

Here is what we have so far:

• Karina Stabile, Rye City School District public information coordinator is from Long Beach and has been trying to help Long Beach with some donations. The area was severly affected; she lost her car and many of her friends and neighbors have lost everything. If anyone wants to drop donations at the Rye City School District office she will deliver items to LB.
• Also, Financial Donations can be made on longbeachny.gov or sent to:City of Long Beach Relief, 1 West Chester Street, Long Beach, NY 11561 
• Birdies on Theodore Fremd Ave collected coats, ski pants, hats and scarves and then drove them to Queens to donate.
• A group in Rye organized a community cleanup on Saturday. Here is an excerpt from an email from Holly Kennedy, forwarded to us by councilwoman Julie Killian:

We can make a difference and also show Rye that when Indian Village isn't knocked flat, we stand up and make a difference to the community. Since so many people are suffering without power, and so many of us are helping neighbor to neighbor and also extending our reach to other communities, I'd like to help our community. The City doesn't have time or manpower to address trash pickup downtown.

• A Rye Brook resident who did not lose power reached out looking for any way to help her community. 
• Port Chester middle and high school students, firefighters and Mayor Dennis Pilla packaged and distributed dry ice several times this week. Congresswoman Nita Lowey stopped by to thank them for their work.
• New Rochelle Runners 

New Rochelle, On Sunday, Nov. 4, over 75 NewRo Runners gathered to run and raise money for Hurricane Sandy. The group chose American Red Cross as the beneficially of approximately $2,000. 35 NewRo Runners had planned to run the NYC Marathon today, and once it was cancelled, NewRo Runners organized a benefit walk and run from 1 to 26.2 miles.

We had 5 runners who completed the full marathon, including Hernán Barreneche Ríos (73), 4 times World Masters Marathon Champion, who was scheduled to run in today’s NYC marathon. A few members of NewRo Runners sponsored Hernán to run his first ever NYC Marathon. Some of the 35 NewRo Runners who were scheduled to run today's NYC Marathon, were disappointed but understood the decision to cancel. Others were relived as they just did not feel the excitement of the race knowing that so many lives had been lost in NY, thousands more were left homeless and millions more were still trying to regain some normalcy to their lives.

Today's run in New Rochelle was the perfect combination of coming together as a community, raising money for relief efforts and even managing to complete a marathon by running 4 and a bit loops around Pinebrook Boulevard. In addition to raising money, NewRo Runners brought clothing and supplies which were later that day taken to Staten Island and The Rockaways to those in need, NewRo Runners motto is "Changing the shape of the community - one mile at a time". For more information on NewRo Runners, please visit our website www.newrorunners.org or contact NewRo Runners President - Steven Stein (914)589-2415

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