Collie Club Helping Members in Hurricane Zone
It is one of the oldest specialty or one-breed clubs in existence.
“We are finding other people in the middle of finding these people,” said Patti Merrill a Neptune Beach, FL member who wants to establish an organization that would do fund-raising as well as find local rescue needs and fill them.
Merrill is one of the national organization’s 2, 200 members and the president. She was looking for people over the Labor Day weekend, trying to locate 14 members in Louisiana and Mississippi who were victims of the most recent hurricane.
One of Merrill’s goals as president – she’s up for re-election – is to start a Collie Rescue Foundation, a club that would exist outside of the CCA that would raise money and help at the local levels.
In the last 21 years there has never been another club member at the beach like Merrill.
In other hurricane news, Kenner resident Mary T. deBrueys, 50, suffered only minor damage to her home but her income in New Orleans is gone.
“No one is there,” she said.
She is hoping that some parts of the business will be salvageable, but she can’t count on anything being there for quite some time.
“I’ll make my own money, I just need something to get started,” said Casimir Pfalzgraf, a Chalmette resident, 49.
Like many middle-class residents who have been devastated by the fury of Katrina, he has found himself like he could never have imagined.
“For the first three days I was in denial,” he said.
According to the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning (NRCFCPPP) children without parents due to natural disasters have always brought out the best in the American people. The organization said that it is expected that any unaccompanied children will be reunited with nuclear family members as soon as possible.
The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse has information in the right-hand column on their site to search for foster care and adoption hotline numbers in your area.
AdoptUSKids has state and local response teams information on their site to which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have provided funding.
The website, Foster Care Month has information for those desiring to provide some immediate assistance to children and families with other resources listed on the page.
