Help Nursing Moms affected by Hurricane Katrina

Thank you so much for the clothing that you collected for our moms. I am one of the LLL Leaders with LLL of Jefferson and I live in St. Charles Parish. I have been involved in passing on donations to mothers all over the Greater New Orleans area since I returned in late October. Last week, I was able to go to Lara's house and pick up the last 10 boxes of donations that she had. With her newborn baby keeping her busy, I had more time to pass out the clothing. I sorted everything by size, then I sent out an e-mail to our member loop which numbers almost 100. The response has been terrific, and most of the clothing has been claimed. In St. Charles Parish alone, we have 22,000 new residents that were flooded out of their homes. Some of the donations have gone to Terrebonne Parish, to St. Tammany, and to Jefferson Parish. LLL has been able to provide baby clothes, diapers, blankets, and even a few strollers. It is wonderful to now be able to help out with nursing clothes and maternity clothes. If anyone wants to continue to donate, they can ship it to my home. We will continue to provide help as long as we are receiving donations.

Please know that these mothers are so grateful. Many have not received any insurance money, and most can not return to their homes because the city has not decided if they can rebuild. Most are living with extended family, several families in one home or in small travel trailers in someone's driveway. Most left home with three summer outfits. Stores here are reopening with very limited hours due to lack of employees. Most of the winter clothes never arrived, so the families are faced with cold weather while the stores have bathing suits on display. There is only one thrift store open in Jefferson Parish at this time. All the rest had extensive damage. It is a very hard time for these families. Most are so overwhelmed by the generosity of total strangers and several have asked if they could write thank you notes to the donors. On behalf of all these moms, I say thank you. We appreciate everything you have done for us.

Update 12/30/05--Several boxes of donations that we sent to the LaLeche League leaders in Texas were passed onto the African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Texas who had a baby shower for displaced moms. We just received a note telling us about their event:

Update 12/02/05--We sent the last of our donations to Lara Ellis, New Orleans La Leche League--another 11 boxes. The grand total came to 703 pounds! Lara says that moms are beginning to return to the region and the items will be put to good use. We were so impressed with the generosity of everyone in the project. Thank you everyone who sent donations and all the wonderful La Leche League volunteers who helped get the items into moms hands. Great job everyone!

Update 10/28/05--Thank you for all your generous donations. We are readying our final shipments to Mississippi & Louisiana at this time. We're just awaiting word that they are ready to receive them. We'll post our final total as soon as we tally it.

If we somehow missed emailing you a coupon for your donation, please let us know. I had some little hands helping sort the boxes, so something might have fallen through the cracks :). If we missed you, I'm very sorry...please be in touch.

Update 9/30/05--We just received word that our La Leche League contacts in the gulf region are overwhelmed with donations at the moment. They need some time to catch-up and distribute items, so I am removing their contact information for direct contributions for now. I will let you know if this changes.

Thank you all for your continued generosity and thanks to all the dedicated La Leche League leaders who have worked so hard in the gulf region to help the moms who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina...you are the best!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We spent a very traumatic 9 hours in the car Thursday morning to only make it 53 miles. My car started to fail (alternator I think). So my family (we had 5 cars of us) decided to go to a nearby friends house and weather the storm there. We could tell we would not be able to make it out of town. The gas stations were already running out of gas. There were 18 of us in one house and we were a lively bunch. We felt safe since the storm started to move east. I am back home now and we are starting to put our home back together. I'm thankful that I have been taking in donations. It looks like they are really going to be needed more than ever. Thanks again for your prayers. I believe they worked!!