• Christine Gray

Volunteers and Staff Serving Residents of Herkimer and Mohawk

Herkimer, NY (June 30, 2013) – The Salvation Army is mobilizing staff and volunteers to provide hot meals to residents of Herkimer and Mohawk who have been impacted by flooding.  “By Sunday afternoon, we have served over 598 meals,” said Capt. Dorothy Budd of Cortland, who is serving as the finance and administration officer.

The Army’s mobile feeding units have arrived from throughout New York State with officers and volunteers providing sandwiches, coffee, donuts, hamburgers and other food to help those pumping out and cleaning basements.

Lt. Summer Hough, from Watertown, serves as the Salvation Army liaison at the Herkimer County 911 Center noted that “the Mohawk community had been hit badly. The Salvation Army is coordinating the logistics of serving hot meals to Mohawk residents on Monday.”

The Army delivered 50 meals to a senior housing site in Herkimer.

An Army mobile feeding unit from the Albany Salvation with Envoy Amaury Ortiz and his wife provided food for 48 people who were assigned to Herkimer County 911 Center on Friday, which is serving as Emergency Operations Center.  Driving around the village of Herkimer on Saturday and Sunday, they served almost 300 residents.

The Salvation Army in Oneonta brought their mobile feeding van and retired Salvation Army officer, Lt. Colonel Edie Pigford, along Oneonta Officer Capt. Evelyn Hopping focused on the village of Mohawk, across the Erie Canal from Herkimer.  The Oneonta crew distributed food and cleaning kits last night. On Sunday morning, they served 114 sandwiches, donuts, water, coffee and distributed 54 cleaning kits.

Capt. Hopping noted that right now, people are cleaning out their damaged houses and are not taking time for food. “Because the Army can come to them, we are delivering clean up kits and food while the streets are filled with water from the pumped out basements,” she added.

Majors J. Craig and Dorie Haggerty from Elmira have positioned Elmira’s mobile feeding unit in one location in Herkimer and are cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for residents in the Smith Street neighborhood. They have served over 250 meals.

Major Michael Himes from Schenectady along with volunteers arrived Sunday afternoon and are taking a mobile feeding unit around Herkimer this afternoon.

The Greater New York Division of The Salvation Army will be bringing a Sprinter van equipped to serve over 1,000 hot meals.  They will arrive on Monday and will also be carrying clean up kits.

Major James Purvis of Oswego is incident command officer, and Capt. Dorothy Budd from Cortland is finance and administration officer.

“We continue to need bottled water.  We’ve received many cases donated, but will need more over the next few days along with granola bars, juice boxes and individually packaged chips, cookies,” said Major Purvis.
For more information, contact the Herkimer Salvation Army at (315) 866-0380.  Donations can be made online to The Salvation Army at https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/empire/Disaster

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About the Empire Division

The Empire State Division of The Salvation Army covers 48 counties in upstate New York and one city in Pennsylvania (Sayre, Pa.).  Our annual Red Kettle Campaign in November and December helps our 42 community and worship centers, service areas in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse and 167 volunteer driven service units raise funds that remain in each community to help those in need.

Website: SalvationArmyEmpireState.org
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About The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army, an evangelical part of the universal Christian church established in London in 1865, has been supporting those in need in His name without discrimination for more than 130 years in the United States. Nearly 30 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through the broadest array of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless and opportunities for underprivileged children. 82 cents of every dollar The Salvation Army spends is used to support those services in 5,000 communities nationwide. For more information, go to www.salvationarmyusa.org.