Photo courtesy of Alice Wright
The Montclair State University community came together to collect donations to bring relief aid to those effected by Hurricane Harvey. Linguistics professor Alice Wright led the effort and has been collecting donations for the past week.
With the help of Montclair State University faculty and administration, Wright collected about 20 bags of donations as well as dog and cat food, treats and baby wipes. The donations will go to Hermann Transportation in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey who have set up a drop off location for Harvey relief aid through Hermann Cares. Hermann has a terminal in Houston and will send two trucks on Sept. 8 to Texas with all the supplies they’ve collected.
Wright has a personal connection to the state of Texas. She lived in and around Houston for about 14 years during a significant time in her life. Houston was where she first learned to drive and she attended high school and college there.
“Even though I wasn’t born there, I do consider it a hometown,” Wright said about her ties to Texas. She saw the opportunity to help the people there so she reached out to the Montclair State community to donate anything they could and the response was incredible. In such a short period of time, people were contacting Wright to schedule donation pickups and she soon found herself with a car full of supplies to benefit those in Texas.
This past Saturday with the help of Yoga professor Daniel McBride, he and Wright put on a concert fundraiser in Montclair. They were able to collect three bags of donations and $220 from concert attendees.
Wright explained that there are a few different ways for people in New Jersey to donate supplies to Texas if they are looking to contribute to the cause. Hermann will continue to send fleets of trucks to Texas throughout September. Those looking to donate non-clothing items can go to Hermanncares.com to see a list of items being collected at their New Jersey location. Gelotti in Montclair is collecting clothes as well as donating one dollar from every pint of gelato puchased throughout the month of September.
