Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and then moved north dropping 30 trillion gallons of water on western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and western Virginia caused catastrophic flooding. A few weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida again. Both storms destroyed homes and flooded out communities. They need our help.
Sager Brown, the central distribution center for UMCOR cleaning kits, aka flood buckets, is completely empty. Thousands of kits are
urgently needed on the ground. On Tuesday Oct 15, members of the Cabinet and EPA staff collaborated to pack 20 cleaning kits. You are invited to join the fun and pack a cleaning kit, or five, or ten and donate them to your nearest collection hub (see list below).
“There are so many ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, to let people know that we are with them.” – Bishop Moore-Koikoi.
Here are ways you can help.
- Pray: Our work is undergirded by the power of prayer – both in the hours after a disaster strikes and through recovery.
- Make supply kits: Assemble relief supply kits to help keep UMCOR’s Relief Supplies Network ready to deliver goods in the hands of survivors (U.S. only)
- Give: To support UMCOR’s U.S. disaster response efforts, you can give to Advance 901670 directly (please note that because UMCOR overheard is covered through our Shared Ministries giving, every dollar your donate goes directly to helping those in need).
- Volunteer: U.S. volunteer efforts are arranged through annual conferences; reach out to your conference disaster relief coordinator for GNJ is Cricket Denton, cdenton@haddonfieldumc.org. There are lots of ways that you can volunteer. Volunteers don’t just deploy to help with recovery, volunteers are also needed to make and receive phone calls, organization spreadsheets, and maintain communications. If you are interested in helping with response and recovery, Rev. Denton is planning a trip to the Augusta area of the North Georgia Conference November 11 – 15 (with additional travel days). For more information, reach out to her at cdenton@haddonfieldumc.org.
- Train to become an Early Responder: Trained Early Responders help people to clean out, so they can shelter in place and protect their homes from future water damage. We are always looking for more people to serve as Early Responders. There is an upcoming ERT training scheduled on January 11, 2024 at Pennington UMC, 60 S. Main Street, Pennington, NJ from 9:00am – 4:00pm. Cost is $30 per person and includes morning refreshments and lunch. Those looking to re-certify can join at 12:30pm.
Central Jersey Outreach HUB
New Dover UMC
687 New Dover Rd
Edison, NJ 08820
Contact: Trish Boyce or Rev. Chuck Coblentz –admin@newdoverumc.org.
Skylands Outreach Depot
Frankford Plains UMC
99 Plains Road
Augusta, NJ 07822
Contact: Kim Burse – skylandsoutreachdepot@gmail.com
South Jersey HUB
Good Shepherd UMC
207 Northfield Ave
Northfield, NJ 08225
Contact: Nicole Troast – ntroast@goodshepherdumc.com