News

More than 700 toys collected for evacuee children

The Advocate By EMILY KERN
Advocate staff writer
Published: Dec 22, 2006
A 9-year-old Florida boy is hoping to make the holidays special for children living in the Renaissance Village trailer park for hurricane evacuees — one wagon full at a time.

Zach Bonner, 9, of Valrico, Fla., and founder of the Little Red Wagon Foundation, has collected more than 700 toys from people all over the country, including neighbors, churches, his Cub Scout troop, Build-a-Bear Workshop and other companies.

Christmas in New Orleans

Forest Park Review, Oak Park, IL 12/27/2005
Christmas in New Orleans
by: Ron Riekki

For months I had emailed and called agencies seeing if I could volunteer for the Katrina Relief efforts. None of the organizations answered my queries, except for one generic mass email I received from Habitat for Humanity. So instead I had a friend of mine, Jay Melder who lives in Baton Rouge, make some calls. He, of course, living there, was much more successful. Understandably, several of the organizations in Louisiana are too busy to respond to a faceless email from the Midwest. They need people that are in the immediate vicinity. I wasn’t. So I figured if I went on my own I would be there and it would be tough to turn me away. Such was the case.