Island Coat and Blanket Drive for Victims of Hurricane Sandy

Like many of us here on Martha’s Vineyard, Nicole Cabot of West Tisbury was relieved when we were spared the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, but watching as people in New York and New Jersey fought for their lives and their homes, she felt she had to do something.

“My whole family lives in New York and New Jersey,” said Cabot, whose uncle is a New York firefighter. “I was kind of feeling helpless and knew that there were probably many more like me on the Vineyard who wanted to act.”

Cabot started with a simple Facebook status update commenting that wouldn’t it be great to collect extra coats and blankets. Her small offer of support went viral almost immediately.

“I had something like 62 different comments that day about what people wanted to do and how they wanted to take part,” she said.

Within 24 hours, 7a Foods and down-Island Cronigs agreed to serve as drop off locations, large boxes were located and the coat and blanket drive began.

“The box at 7a filled up within two hours,” said Cabot.

Right now, the drive is for blankets and coats only. Those wishing to do more than donate can come by the Hebrew Center on Wednesday, November 7^th between 2:30 pm  – 3:30 pm to help with the sorting.

A resident will be traveling to New York City this weekend and will take all the donations to Breezy Point, Queens where 111 homes were lost to fires and flooding. “Breezy Point is a small, close-knit, working class community very similar in size and scale to the Vineyard and it seemed like the perfect place for us to start. There are a lot of first responders who live there and they’ve lost everything,” said Cabot.

Next week, another volunteer will take whatever won’t fit on this trip to New York. “Once we get everything sorted, we’ll have a better sense of what we have and what we need,” said Cabot. “Sleeping bags seem like a great idea, as well as clean and warm baby blankets.”