The Hurricane Michael relief project was the second of our club’s Senior Active Service Grants (SAS Grants), each of which entailed roughly ten donors matching a thousand dollars challenge grant to raise approximately $10,000. In both cases the full amount was raised in 2 to 3 weeks. This Hurricane Michael relief grant raised $18,000 in three weeks. This allowed us to respond to the immediate and urgent need almost immediately.
These SAS grants are designed for Senior Rotarians who can more easily write a check than spend a year developing a Global Grant. They also make it possible to meet urgent and immediate needs with the substantial response in a matter of weeks. We strongly encourage other clubs to try this approach at least for the Senior Rotarians who have a desire, but lacked the means, of meeting urgent needs around them and around the world.
We had designated our grant for the Mexico Beach/Port St. Joe area which was served by the Samaritan’s Purse mobile field office in Wewahitchka, FL., about 10 miles inland. From that field office, 948 families were served in cleanup and water damage removal. A second phase for reconstruction of the most needy of these is soon to begin.
We funded a mobile field office on site for a week and a half, with all of its permanent staff, volunteer work crews, disaster recovery trucks with all necessary equipment.
The cleanup phase is completed and the reconstruction phase will soon begin.