Volunteers prepare $100,000 Christmas gift for hurricane victims--and set record.

Photo by David Farmer

On Dec. 14, 2012, 150 Brethren Disaster Relief Auction (BDRA) volunteers from the Atlantic Northeast and Southern Pennsylvania Districts assembled 1,000 Emergency Clean-up Buckets for victims of Hurricane Sandy at Florin Church of the Brethren in Mt. Joy, Pa.--and they did it in 60 minutes.

A clean-up bucket is a large plastic bucket tightly filled with 58 items needed by people to clean up after a disaster. It includes such items as cleaning supplies, detergents, disinfectants, trash bags, gloves, insect repellents, and other items needed after a natural disaster.

The assembly of 1,000 Emergency Clean-up Buckets at one place and one time had never been attempted before. Most are donated in smaller amounts by churches or individuals. Last May, 500 were assembled at the same location in two hours. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the auction assembled 30,000 school kits in three hours during the annual auction at Lebanon (Pa.) Expo Center. This feat has not been duplicated since.

The estimated assembled value of the 1,000 buckets is $100, 000.

Hurricane Sandy caused wide-spread destruction to New York and New Jersey in October. Even though the auction is held once a year in September, its charitable activities continue year-round, including sending volunteers to areas affected by natural and man-made disasters.

The BDRA of the Atlantic Northeast and Southern Pennsylvania Districts was founded in 1977 and has raised more than $12,000,000 for disaster relief, both domestically and internationally. The website for the auction is www.brethrendisasterreliefauction.org .


-- David L. Farmer submitted this report to Newsline.

Source: 1/24/2013 Newsline