Serve

Opportunities are always at hand for people to assist. Some are onetime events, some are ongoing, some involve donating funds, some require physical work and some involve letter writing, phone calls and prayer. There are many ways to serve. Below are just a few of the ways to serve. Thank you for your interest.

• Food Donations. Food delivered to the church is distributed to people in need. Always needed are canned protein rich items such as tuna, peanut butter, chicken, and sardines. Bottled water is often requested. Personal hygiene items are helpful, including toothbrushes and toothpaste.
• Quaker Volunteer Service. Check out the online description of the service organization for young adults which receives support from Reedwood. This link will connect with with the current needs:
  https://quakervoluntaryservice.org/
• Brooklyn Coop Preschool. Housed at Reedwood, their link will put you in touch with school year plans, Open House dates, what is involved in taking part in a Coop, visitation and registration information:
  http://brooklyncooppreschool.org/
• Air Serv International. Getting food and water to people in need throughout the world via Stu Willcuts’ international project:

Navajo Project Update for week of July 12-17

From Stu Willcutts: I share the latest re the Navajo/Hope Native American COVID response project. In theory the project ends in July. 

Background

Recall that a New York Times piece reported the problems that the Navajo and Hopi Native Americans were having obtaining Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). These people are located on a reservation, (17.5 million acres), forced to live here many decades ago, with few roads and scattered population groups. Yet, their culture is such that they come together regularly and do have members entering and exiting the Reservation. As a result, the COVID arrived and spread. The Feds and the two bordering States declared a hotspot and, in essence closed access. At the same time PPE was almost impossible to obtain. 

Danielle, (Comms Director for ASI),read the NYT piece, was moved by the need and reached out to get more info. She contacted the Navajo Health office to confirm the need. She then did a research of airports close by that had operators with Caravans or C-206-7 for cargo potential. Info was gathered and a grant proposal was submitted to ISTAT Foundation. We were granted $70,000 to match the $20,000 ASG had set aside. We had asked an alum to serve as Project Manager. He agreed and then health forced him out. Danielle then proceeded to Phoenix, Arizona to manage the project. She remains there. Danielle has reached out to Home Depot, Lowes, and similar businesses for donated materials. She has received some, including sinks, plumbing, (for washing at family sites), and some PPE. GIK donations of PPE have increased so that additional storage at a local hanger is required.  The first flight was 8July using a Caravan from Westwind. 

Update as of July 18

We’ve moved over 11,000 pounds so far (every pound of which I (Danielle), personally moved, inventoried, weighed, and tagged 😒). Final numbers are not yet totaled but, based on what I’ve received so far, we served between 1600-2000 households (average 7 people per household for estimated total of 8,600 people), last week. As of now, four flights are scheduled for next week (week of July 19),- one split flight to Montezuma Creek and Page, one to Monument Valley, and one to Hopi Reservation. I’ve spoken with ISTAT and they are extremely pleased with the program. I’ve been asked to prepare a report for them to include in their quarterly publication, as they want to feature one of their grantees and would like that to be this program. ABC News got their insurance cleared, and they are still interested in covering a flight if they can get a correspondent here. I believe General Aviation News is also publishing something, they asked me to provide photos which I sent to them earlier this week.

Stu Note: AirServ has received over $8,100 in private donations for this program.

The FAA and DOT have released an amendment regarding the carriage of hand sanitizer. Anything over 70% alcohol cannot be carried by plane. We have a significant amount of 80% alcohol sanitizer, so we look at options for ground transport to relocate it to a distribution center. We will continue flying anything that’s 70% or below.The COVID rate in the reservation is now estimated at 6%, and there are sections of Hopi and Apache that are hitting 11%.

Stu Note: As you will note from a variety of the COVID data Arizona is one of the USA States not dealing well with the COVID. A significant number of people in Phoenix seem to be in continued denial that COVID exists and even though mandated, the wearing of masks and social distancing seems to still be perceived as optional.