CURRENT PROJECT

North Carolina Furniture Drive

Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina in August of 2018. The storm took 44 lives and caused 17 billion in damage. Recovery is still going strong but 667 families are still displaced. Teaming up with All Hands and Hearts, Demarest Teen Disaster Relief is running a furniture drive to provide needed furniture in newly completed homes. These families have lost everything and we want to help them build a new life. We plan to transport the furniture down to North Carolina at the end of June. Please donate to our GoFundMe to cover transportation costs. Or donate your time by helping unload furniture. Sign up here! Or help distribute flyers, make calls, etc. Sign up here!

PAST PROJECTS

Baton Rouge Rebuild

In August 2016, historic floods devastated Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The rainfall, over 30 inches of rain in some areas, caused unprecedented damage. Many people lost their homes in the disaster and people rallied to help them. But two years later, there was still work to be done and the country had seemingly forgotten about them. When we found out about their plight, we jumped to action. We planned a rebuild trip down to Baton Rouge in February of 2019. Once again we teamed up with the St Bernard Project and spent a week rebuilding a home in Baton Rouge.

Houston Rebuild Project

In February of 2018, our group of Demarest teens headed to Houston, Texas to work with the SBPUSA to rebuild a home devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Upon our return to Demarest and with a substantial donation from the Student a Council of Northern Valley Regional High School Demarest, we were able to raise enough funds to completely furnish the home.

Although we realize we don’t have to look far to find people in need, we decided to focus on areas devastated by natural disasters, by rebuilding homes, and providing furniture, and basic household necessities. Hopefully, with our help some of these families can have a somewhat smoother path to restoring normalcy in their lives.

UPDATE on HOUSTON REBUILD FOR MISS SHIRLEY

Update:

Miss Shirley is home!
Thank you... Because of your generous donations Miss Shirley was able to move back into her newly furnished home. Her homecoming would not have been possible without you.
If you'd like to help other families return home, please reach out to learn about recovery efforts across the country.

GO FUND ME

IT ALL STARTED WHEN…

In February of 2018, a group of teens headed to Houston, Texas to work with the St. Bernard Project, to rebuild a house devastated by Hurricane Harvey. We spent February break working on the home of Ms. Shirley, and now with the help of other volunteers it is close to being completed. Our hope is that Ms. Shirley comes back to a comfortably furnished home. We already have a generous donation from the Northern Valley Demarest Regional High School Student Council of $2000. With some additional money, we are halfway to our goal. Please help us raise the money to furnish, Ms. Shirley’s house.

Here is Ms. Shirley’s story…

Ms. Shirley, a 79-year old widow, was displaced from her home by Hurricane Harvey, which hit Houston, Texas in August of 2017. During Hurricane Harvey, Ms. Shirley was terrified and alone, since her husband of 50 years had died the year before. As she watched the waters steadily rise, she fear what would happen to her as well as her cherished home of 35 years. Luckily, Ms. Shirley’s next-door neighbors came to her rescue and helped her evacuate to a nearby shelter.  Unfortunately, everything in her home was destroyed.

Since then, Ms. Shirley has been moving back and forth between family members, which has taken a toll on her both physically and mentally. Because she is legally blind, and has limited mobility, she misses the familiarity of her old house. Later in his life, her husband had medical issues, which left him unable to work and could no longer afford flood insurance. This, and FEMA’s denial for assistance, has left Ms. Shirley without any funds to rebuild. All of the environmental and emotional changes have caused Ms. Shirley to feel lost and alone, but she still remains hopeful that she will return home to the memories she shared with her devoted husband.

Thank you,
Jack Besnoy, Nicolas Caruso, Christopher Bonadio-Capiello, Chris Ha, Cole Wasserman, and Leslie Kang
#SBPPardee #SBPHouston #SBPUSA #StBernardProject #HurricaneHarveyRelief

Donate here on our Go Fund Me page