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Custom suitcases for thousands
Goleta Valley VoiceMartha Lannan, Voice Community Editor09/23/2005
“Operation Fill-a-Suitcase” for victims of hurricane Katrina began when one person decided she could and would make a difference.
As of Wednesday, the suitcase project, as it has been nicknamed, had mushroomed to the point that enough clothing, suitcases and personal items had been donated by locals to fill two-and-a-half 53-foot long moving vans.
The person who started the extraordinary project is Kathy Clenet.
After watching extensive television coverage of tens of thousands of refugees keeping their meager belongings in garbage bags, said Clenet’s daughter, Rachel Steidl, her family thought that suitcases would be something fundamental to starting the displaced on the way to reclaiming their lives.
Clenet, her daughter, her good friend JoAnn Eberz and a few others got together to plan, and the enterprise was off and running.
They quickly realized that if they collected essentials for those in need, they would need a way to get them to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Eberz, who with her husband Chris, owns Mammoth Moving in Goleta, offered the services of their company. Not only is Mammoth Moving dedicating drivers and trucks to the effort, the company has set up major workstations both outside on the business property and inside the warehouse, for sorting, organizing and packing of everything to be loaded into the moving vans.
The project is exceptional in one particular way: as clothes are packed into luggage, each suitcase is filled with articles of clothing in a single category. The items are all for either a male or female, and all the same size; a suitcase could be labeled for a man who wears medium pants and shirts, a toddler who wears 24-month-old outfits, or a woman who wears a size 14, for example.
”We’re doing all this work on this end, so that piles of donated goods don’t just sit in warehouses,” said Eberz.
Although the game plan was originally for one weekend, response from area residents was so overwhelming that a second weekend had to be added, and that one will be a long one.
At this point, one moving van full of individual suitcases has left Goleta for the Dallas area; Clenet will meet it there when it arrives and help with distribution. Two other vans will leave for Mississippi next week after a very long, work-intensive weekend.
“We have one-and-a-half trucks full of donated luggage and clothing to organize and pack Saturday and Sunday,” said Eberz. “We’ll be working from 8 until sunset both days.”
“The greatest need we have at this point, is for volunteers to help out on Saturday and Sunday,” said Eberz. “It doesn’t matter how long you can stay,” she said. “An hour, three hours, whatever someone can do will be a huge help,” she said. The task ahead is colossal.
The suitcase project is still accepting contributions of brand new underwear and socks in all sizes, said Steidl, and also needs cash contributions (checks may be made payable to Mammoth Moving) of any amount to help defray driver and fuel expenses for the trips of the second and third moving vans. Fuel for each van’s round trip is expected to cost $3-4,000.
Clenet has made direct contact with individual Salvation Army officials in the Texas and Mississippi towns that shipments will be going to, she said - a fact that has been enormously encouraging. You might even say mammoth.
Eberz said she’s doing her best to be on hand when the second or third shipments arrive at their destinations.
For more information about “Operation Pack-a-Suitcase” or to contribute to it, call 448-2426 or 688-9212, or go to sbparent.com for updates and information on the program.
- MARTHA LANNAN
Caption: Several dozen people worked at Mammoth Moving from early morning until dark last weekend sorting clothing for people displaced by hurricane Katrina. They were packed in individual suitcases, by gender and size, for shipment to Texas and Mississippi.
