Relief Agencies Not Surprised by Kansas City's Response
by David Smale
It came as no surprise to those whose job it is to provide relief in times of crisis, but the metropolitan Kansas City area stepped up again during the crisis created by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast.
“We live in a very supportive community,” said Roger Alexander, the Director of Development for Kansas and Western Missouri for the Salvation Army. His area covers all of Kansas and 10 counties (Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Cass, Clay, Holt, Jackson, Nodaway, Platte and Ray) in Missouri.
“I may have been amazed the first time, but it happens as a matter of practice,” added Shelley Bartkoski, Director of Community Relations for the Greater Kansas City chapter of the American Red Cross. “It is a generous and caring community.”
Bartkoski says that people in the Midwest understand recovering from a disaster, though no one in Kansas City can imagine the devastation experienced in the Gulf Coast. “We know what it’s like when we have a tornado or a flood, and we know how that can affect individuals and families.
“If you look at a disaster the magnitude of the hurricanes this fall, our neighborhoods extend far beyond what we normally think about.”
The generosity was not limited to the immediate Kansas City area. People throughout the 20-county area responded as well. “We were very impressed and almost overwhelmed with the outpouring of clothes donations and food donations for evacuees who came to our area,” said Vickie Brokke, Vice President, Resource Development, United Way of Greater Topeka. “We raised a very impressive amount of money that went to the national United Way relief fund. I think it was about $75,000, and that was from individuals and corporations.”
Equally important to Brokke is the fact that the community continued to support local non-profits. The money that came in was above and beyond what folks did for their own local communities.
Angel Flight Central volunteers in Baton Rouge. The American Red Cross has raised almost $5 million in relief aid in Kansas City. Add nearly another million dollars collected by the Kansas Capital Area Chapter in Topeka. Those numbers do not include what was donated directly to the national office from people and corporations in the 20-county Kansas City area. The local branches will find out that amount in the future. Nationally, the Red Cross has raised $1.2 billion.
The Red Cross’ estimate for the total amount of relief needed is $2 billion, so Bartkoski says they “still have a gap to make up.”
The Salvation Army’s Kansas City figures are similar. Alexander said that his branch of the Salvation Army has received about $4.5 million so far, compared with $200 to $250 million nationally. The Salvation Army sent out one mailer to 90,000 regular supporters, which raised about $600,000. The rest came “out of the generosity of people’s hearts, seeing a need and trusting the Salvation Army to respond,” Alexander said.
Bartkoski was intrigued by the creativity shown by people in raising funds to send to the Red Cross. “We have gotten money from children having lemonade stands,” she said. “We have seen schools, from elementary to high school, have fundraisers. We have seen employers have matching programs for their employees. We have seen businesses with matching programs with their customers. Restaurants and sporting events have raised money. It’s really run the gamut.
“It’s very possible that we won’t ever know the total value of the services given, over and above the dollars given.”
Alexander adds that stories like Bartkoski’s could be repeated many times, including churches that matched their congregation’s gifts and people who simply opened up their homes to strangers.