Lúgh Studio’s Community Response to Hurricane Sandy
10/24/12
Community
When Sandy hit, everyone wanted to do something.
So I found some collections centers and made an initial trip with donated clothes and food with my neighbor Quyen Doh. We were blown away by the devastation we saw. Once we had given away a packed car full of food, word got out about us driving out there and suddenly I was flooded with offers of donations. Three more trips would ensue each time with my car packed to the gills—packed, as in I was driving with boxes of pasta in my lap.
Keith Ramjohn, an amazing caterer, volunteered to cook the food that Photographer Gerri Hernandez connected us to The Oratory Church of St. Boniface which donated food so Keith Ramjohn, an amazing caterer could cook all through the night so we could feed 120 people a hot meal—something most people had not had in a week. Designer Herb Greenword and Heeday Nakahashi from Eriksen Translations joined in to help serve warm food and distribute items.We loaded up and headed out again to the Rockaways.
We randomly turned down a street far into The Rockaways where we discovered Cynthia Bryant, a strong local community leader who, on her own with nothing, had organized and was caring for elderly and physically and mentally challenged neighbors many of whom had been living in first floor dwellings all of which were flooded and uninhabitable. She was key. With her help were were able to ensure that every donation went to someone who truly needed it. Word got out. More donations.
Ceol Pub donated 2 massive Shepard’s Pies, Tony at Brooklyn Heights Bike Shoppe supplied us with 2 cases of LCD flashlights—and highly coveted batteries. These were super important as it got dark at 4pm and no one could see, let alone work to continue to clean up after 4pm. This allowed the many young men out there to do just that, helped young moms care for their children and gave some elderly ladies a little more security.
Suzanne Sobel made a very generous donation that allowed for us to go to a botanica (the only place where you could find candles at that point) and buy cases and cases of candles and other badly needed supplies. And Suzanne told her good friend Maria Cuomo Cole who heads HELP USA, an amazing organization, who we would later partner with to put together a video supporting their much larger efforts. The video would end up playing in all of the NYC taxi cabs.
