At Roberto’s Kids, our global reach and leadership bridges the gap between different cultures every day. We focus on sustainable impact while our volunteers focus on community service results that will endure. Today was no exception while we supported a Hurricane Harvey local collection site.  Either way you say it, the meaning is the same. Everyone is about making a difference in the lives of others.

Social and community responsibility comes in many forms.

Today, we experienced that collective energy by joining in on a local donation collection hub that is directing food and clothing into the Houston area to support families impacted by hurricane Harvey.

 

Phil Gerster has a lot in common with our program philosophy. Phil is Gerster Trucking, Inc. and Gerster’s Triple E Towing and Repair Inc. He and his family are in Davenport Center, NY just outside of our city limits here in Oneonta, NY.

Never underestimate the power of social media. We learned about this local effort to get needed food and clothing down to the Houston area on Facebook.

If you have clothes in your closet that are collecting dust NOW is the time. Box it up and head over to Losie’s Gun Shop, owned and operated by Jim Losie, in Oneonta, NY.

Phil contacted Jim and asked if he could stage an empty tractor trailer in his parking lot to provide a local collection hub to get that trailer loaded up and on its way.

Two business men doing business, raising families, and making a difference where they can. But more, they grabbed a hold of that often-unnoticed collective energy. Together we are more.

Last week Roberto’s Kids sent a full pallet of new t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, shorts, socks, and baseball caps to Pairland, Texas directly to one of our program collection hubs managed by David Moss, HiS PRINT Ministries, where they will distribute this where it is needed.

Hurricane Harvey Collection SiteToday, our family loaded up three vehicles and delivered 15 additional cases of brand new t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, shorts, shoes, and even a few canvas bags from our storage unit to add into the collective effort to get more needed clothing in the hands of families in need.

We talked with Phil and Jim after we unloaded. Phil shared that there have been nearly $2,000 in cash donations which will help support gasoline, two drivers volunteered to make the haul, and one tractor trailer is already on the way. Another trailer is being loaded as we post this.

Please consider looking around your house and heading over to Southside and dropping off your contribution to our community’s collective effort to help the families of hurricane Harvey’s fury.

Please share out this post in hopes that it will encourage other communities to do the same thing. Tag your friends. Let’s spread this crazy collective energy and bring more needed support to the families that so desperately need us.

To all the victims of hurricane Harvey – Upstate New York has stepped up to be a part of assisting you all in rebuilding your lives. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.