“The final trucks that we’ve arranged so far, on Monday, will be picking up just under 2,000 buckets across Iowa and delivering them to Midwest Missions,” reports Rev. Catie Newman, who is the disaster response coordinator for the Iowa Conference. “We’ve tried to get all the buckets into three locations so we just have three pick-ups for them that day.”
Those kits will soon be helping people in the many areas ravaged by hurricane begin the overwhelming task of cleaning up, but of course there is still going to be enormous demand going forward. “There is an ongoing need, specifically for health or hygiene kits, and for clean-up buckets, formerly known as flood buckets,” says Rev. Newman. “They’re going out of the UMCOR distribution centers as quickly as they come in, so we really do need people to keep making kits.”
She notes that there has been some confusion about an announcement that came out of UMCOR that they will no longer be sending kits internationally, and emphasizes that that doesn’t apply to the current hurricane clean-up situation. “Here in the United States, and in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, we will still be sending kits. Because they don’t have to travel internationally, that lifts a lot of restrictions on the kits and that makes it easier.”
So people are urged to continue putting together those kits and to bring them to the 2017 Thanksgiving Ingathering in November. “Folks from the Disaster Ministries committees will be at every ingathering site with a trailer to pick up clean-up buckets specifically for hurricane clean-up,” Rev. Newman explains. “They can bring completed clean-up buckets or parts of clean-up buckets to the ingathering, and we’ll get them to the distribution center.”
For those looking to put together clean-up buckets, you will need a 5-gallon round bucket with a resealable lid. The items to put inside include liquid laundry detergent, liquid household cleaner, dish soap, air freshener, insect repellant, scrub brush, cleaning wipes, sponges, scouring pads, clothespins, clothesline, heavy-duty trash bags, dust masks, dishwashing gloves, and work gloves.
Visit this website for the complete list, along with assembly and shipping information, and an instructional video:
http://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/Relief-Supplies/Relief-Supply-Kits/Cleaning
