Alabama

• 25 RSVP of Mobile County volunteers are sorting truckloads of food, clothing, and other items that are trucked in daily at the Volunteers of America warehouse in Mobile. An additional 11 volunteers are helping at the Salvation Army making sandwiches for policemen, hurricane victims, and hospice patients.
   
• RSVP volunteers in Calhoun County processed 260 background checks for the American Red Cross and have signed up, trained, and issued badges to 147 volunteers. 13 volunteers are serving as hosts to evacuee families, assisting with food, clothing and housing at the Lenlock Community Center. At Fort McClellan, 75 volunteers assisted with cleanup of the facility before families arrived and are now providing other types of support to the families housed there.
   
• RSVP volunteers with the City of Thomasville are putting together health kits for evacuees in Clarke County.RSVP volunteers adopted houses and rooms for clean-up and furnishing in preparation for the arrival of evacuee families at a former residential mental health facility in Thomasville. Volunteers also helped to fix a 38-unit motel in Marengo County that will house evacuees on a long-term basis.
   
• RSVP volunteers with the Montgomery Area Council on Aging are assisting families in getting settled, serving food, and spending time with the children at an Autauga County nursing home that opened up part of its facility to accommodate 50 families. 200 additional RSVP volunteers are serving in a shelter in Elmore County.
   
• 10 to 15 CERT-trained Colbert County RSVP volunteers have been deployed to the headquarters of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency and are unloading trucks, assessing damages for FEMA, and “tarping” roofs. In Tuscumbia, volunteers have created a database of available rental housing and are matching evacuee families with these homes.
   
• Baldwin County RSVP volunteers are answering phones and making appointments in the two Baldwin County American Red Cross offices, taking names and numbers, and making calls back to schedule appointments for FEMA. Volunteers are also working in the Service Center, interviewing clients who are applying for financial assistance.

Iowa

• Decorah Cares RSVP sponsored a donations drive that filled a semi-trailer truck with cleaning supplies, which were delivered to Bay St. Louis, Miss.
   
• The Dubuque County RSVP program has been supporting the American Red Cross by helping people with their donations and by sorting donated items at a local mall. The donated items will be sent to Katrina evacuees.

Maryland

• 36 additional members from the NCCC Northeast Region campus in Perry Point, Md., were deployedto Texas to assist the Red Cross with hurricane relief.

Massachusetts

• 12 Massachusetts Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA members serving at colleges and universities throughout the state are organizing various American Red Cross fundraisers, including Beads for Bourbon Street, a Hurricane Katrina Benefit Concert, and a Hurricane Katrina Relief 5K Run. They also are organizing a Red Cross volunteer expo for students interested in hurricane relief work; and a school supply drive for the Louisiana Association for the Education of Homeless Children & Youth. The VISTAs have raised over $16,500 for Katrina relief effort.

Minnesota

• 4 RSVP of Southwest Minnesota volunteers are assisting the Renville/Redwood American Red Cross with a mailing asking for contributions to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
   
• Through the United Way, an Initiative Foundation VISTA member serving at Bridges of Hope in Brainerd has been assisting an evacuee with clothing needs and computer access in order to register for assistance with FEMA, the American Red Cross, and other agencies.

New Hampshire

• 2 VISTA members from the Gate City Community Development Corporation VISTA project in Nashua are coordinating a Hurricane Katrina Relief Drive that is gathering non-perishable food, medical supplies, and other items to be transported to drop-off points in the South.
   
• 33 RSVP volunteers from the Carroll County RSVP in North Conway created 35 quilts to be sent to homeless evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
   
• 49 Carroll County RSVP volunteers serving at six faith-based food pantries in North Conway have donated $1,000 to the Salvation Army to feed evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

South Carolina

• 4 Columbia RSVP volunteers are assisting Cooperative Ministries in collecting and sorting bed linens, toiletries, baby goods, and other items. 5 additional RSVP volunteers are sorting food items at Harvest Hope Food Bank for evacuees who have arrived in the Midlands.
   
• 4 Sumter RSVP volunteers and several staff from the Salvation Army drove an emergency mobile feeding unit to a staging unit in Memphis, Tenn.

For the latest news, information, and updates on hurricane relief and recovery efforts from the Corporation for National and Community Service, please visit http://www.nationalservice.gov/katrina.

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