365 Days, 365 Ways: Generosity and friendship: thoughts on Sandy [98, 99]

So this post was supposed to go up weeks ago, but it somehow never made it. But the message still holds true, so here it is:

As Sandy continued on her way, still reeking havoc the week after Halloween, I was thankful that my area was pretty unaffected. Lots of schools got canceled and offices were shut down on Monday and even into Tuesday, but the damage was minimal compared to other states. When we were hunkered down at home the day of the hurricane, my roommate parked her car in the front yard, as far away from the trees that surround our house as possible. We did end up losing power, but only for a couple hours, in which we reconnected with our old fashioned sides by knitting and reading by candlelight. While we went the candle route, the vet school was closed to students but the vet hospital was open and running on backup generators. On Tuesday, campus was still relying on the generators, so classes were confined to the few buildings with power.

Now it's time to repair and rebuild and seeing pictures of the damage has been utterly overwhelming. Everyone wanted and still wants to help, but where to start? I've found it easiest to start with my friends. Effects from Hurricane Sandy (being nicknamed Frankenstorm) were (are) being felt all the way to the Great Lakes, so chances are, you know somebody affected by the storm, if that someone isn't you. For me, it's of course a lot of people because not only was it me in a tiny way, I have friends from Massachusetts down to New Jersey and every state in between. But, highest on the list and first on my mind was my classmate, friend, and the woman my whole class has kind of nicknamed "mom": Terri. While she's living up here, her husband is back in New York City with one of her dogs and he got stranded above his shop in the city once the flooding started. His car is wrecked and his shop was under four feet of water. My class is a mixed bag of people but quite a few of us have perfected the poor college student lifestyle, so money-wise we have very little to offer for support. And, anyway, in the days after the storm it was too early for us to really know what kind of help Terri and her husband needed. BUT, turns out we've got pretty big hearts because we all chipped in a little bit of money for something that we could do, which is a gift card for Terri and her husband to pay for anything they need or want. So far, it's been used to buy Terri's puppy a new harness and leash set to replace the one covered in toxic gunk during the storm.