She Had to Do Something to Help
Seeing the images of those left stranded by Hurricane Harvey, a Dallas resident set out to find what she could do.
Michelle, a Scientologist and Volunteer Minister from Dallas, had enough. Following #Harvey on Twitter, she wasn’t going to let another day go by without doing something about it.
So she took off for the Red Cross shelter in Dallas to find out what they needed. Before she left, she posted on her Facebook asking people to make donations so she could buy what they needed.
The shelter handed her a very specific list of items they were missing. Michelle called the Director of Public Affairs who is coordinating volunteer actions at the Church of Scientology Dallas, her church, and they decided to buy as many towels as they could find.
They met at Walmart and started to load up a shopping cart with towels. Five shopping carts later, they were ready to check out. The Walmart manager didn’t have the authority to give her the towels as a donation, but he gave her a 10 percent discount, and while he was scanning the towels, other employees came to help bag them up.
“Meanwhile, my phone was going crazy,” Michelle says. Messages were rolling in from across the U.S. By the time she finished checking out she had $500 in donations.
“By now it was 11:25,” says Michelle. They were concerned about making the delivery so late, so they called the shelter and someone miraculously answered the phone and said to come on by. Arriving after midnight, they were greeted by Diane, a CERT volunteer, who was delighted to have the towels and ran to get a cart to help move the 10 bags full of towels into the center.
So much help is needed. Hurricane Harvey is expected to affect 13 million people in Texas and Louisiana and drive some 30,000 into shelters. If you can help, contact the International Scientology Volunteer Ministers’ Headquarters in Los Angeles at
