the sign at the end of my driveway
My little altruistic social media experiment was a success. On Tuesday, I published the Turkey Day in Rockaway blog post, along with lots of posting on Twitter, Facebook and my local Patch. I also sent an email version to the folks on my street and a few select movers and shakers in my community.I was curios how many peeps would take action to help those still in the dark in the Far Rockaways.
The result was uplifting. Neighbors from my street brought cider, drinks, homemade pumpkin fudge and containers filled with freshly made stuffing. Slow Food friends from further away drove up to my house with boxes and boxes of fresh apple pies that they had just baked with their kids. People in my town that saw the post on Facebook brought homemade cranberry sauce. Someone anonymously donated bags and bags of peanut butter cups and 100 Grand bars, perhaps a Halloween stash. One of my Gilda’s Club participants brought giant trays of homemade sweet potatoes and squash all the way down from Beacon, NY. And my cousin, Becky, donated money all the way from San Jose for me to buy some food and cook it for the Rockaway folks.
Twitter was effective too. Paul Stark, a social media enthusiast and fellow environmental activist brought boxes and boxes of holiday pies that were freshly baked from Putnam Northern Westchester Boces. He blogged, tweeted and re-tweeted shouting from the cyberspace rooftops in an effort to amplify the response. A publisher of a local magazine, Inside Chappaqua, offered to be my co-pilot for the day.
By Thursday morning, I had quite a carload of food and drink. Once loaded up, the trip to Far Rockaway, which is just past JFK airport, went without a hitch. There were loads of folks there to help serve and clean up so we headed to the beach to see some of the damage that Sandy brought to this part of NY.
A big big THANK YOU to all of you who donated food, drink, tablecloths, paper goods and containers. Folks in Rockaway who don’t have working kitchens were well fed and taken care of yesterday thanks to your thoughtfulness.
Plenty of pies, many freshly baked from my altruistic network
Turkeys and hams ready to go into the ovens to be reheated.
My friend Cameron made sweet potatoes and marshmallows
