On Fire, In a Good Way

There were HUGE problems going on yesterday as I walked into the center to help victims of the horrendous Chestnut St. fire.

Like so many others, I just wanted to help, so I set aside time yesterday to go in and do whatever was needed.

Therein lay the problem.

Because of certain people, there was LITTLE work to be done!!

Looters? Greedy imposters? Shortage of donations? Apathy?

York has its problems, but caring for our own doesn't seem to be one of them at this point.

The biggest problem yesterday, was that most of the work had been done so efficiently, and so quickly, that there was almost nothing to do yesterday. I'm sure there wil be another wave of need, but what a fantastic problem to have.

There were people like Bill who had been there since Monday, and was going strong yesterday, seeming to be whereever there was need. A beautiful 15-year old girl named Nashaya had been there 2 days already. Her grandmother knew some of the victims, so she'd been hustling around for those 2 days doing whatever needed to be done.

Janet Deardorf, arrived at the center on a cane, which obviously wasn't an excuse for her not to help. Nope, she disregarded the cane, and didn't seem to want to be treated any different because of it.

A woman named Brenda had been there for several days and was adept at popping up wherever someone needed something.

A group of teenaged boys with identifying t-shirts from a leadership development program zipped around when a call would come from one part of the room for some help.

And actually finding things could have been a huge problem, since donations were above and beyond what you would expect.

A whole room just for kids' clothes, piled high in bins separated by size and season. Kitchenware, towels, sheets, bedspreads, clothing, clothing, clothing everywhere, some still with tags dangling from them. Generosity was apparent.

Somehow over time, I hope we can replace the images in our minds of those horrible fires, with images of Yorkers pitching in and being on fire for helping our own. We can't make the fire unhappen, but we can do what we can to help as though it were our loved ones who can use the extra hands.