This is a great idea. I am in. Looking forward to seeing where to send the $.

Many of us will send checks so let us know how to make them out.

Thanks to you who are setting this up and administrating it.

Fred this is Bankerron...just noticed I was on Carrie's name...whoops!If you need someone to help with anything please let me know. 785-249-1999

I will be happy to help Fred with the decision making process and administration. I too would like to possibly go down and help out for a few days. Anyone from up north here interested in setting up a car pool? I have enclosed snowmobile trailer we could load up and tow stuff down with.

I keep wondering, given the conditions, if we would even be allowed into the area to try to help. Usually after an event like this access is very restricted unless you are with the insurance companies, red cross etc. My wife and I are donating to the red cross right now, works well since the company we work for is matching every dollar donated by employees.

But once things settle down and open up a little it might be interesting to see if we could get folks to take a few days off and go down and help out our OSO friends.

Please post bank info, and I will send $. I am a contractor and will be glad to lend whatever assistance I can. I own a fire protection company, and am currently working with union to send some labor force down there,they just can't tell us when we will be allowed in, nut i will keep people posted as to when outside workers are allowed in.

We've tried to keep up with all the members and where they are but no place seems to be the comprehensive place.

So until something is better we have created a spreadsheet at www.talkoffshore.com.

We need some of you to fill us in on names, locations and status of the very members that we care so much about.

AC

I just got in and and read all the posts. I'm so excited to see the response. I want to thank Semper Fi for coming up with the idea and Fred for offering his services.
All day I spent a lot of time thinking. Even though I have the worst luck possible, I am lucky in so many ways. I think about the money we all spend on our hobby. Now these poor people have lost everything in their lives. It just made me look at things very differently. I was thinking about ways to help these people. This way is one. I also think the road trip is great as long as they will let people in. My girlfriend signed up today as a Red Cross volunteer. She is going to see what she can find out for us about going there. I was also thinking about this: OSO has the auction section. Maybe they can lower or waive the auction fees and we can all go through our garages and find all our useless boat stuff (we all have tons collecting dust) and start auctioning them on OSO. Then we can donate any part of that to the fund. It's that much more for the cause without it affecting any of us. I have a few brand new Sospender jackets and some other stuff I would love to turn into cash for the fund. Just a thought. When I'm on a mission, watch out!!

I'm in a group called HOPE (Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies) which is associated w/ the Red Cross. We have been told not to deploy at this time. We expect the call w/in a week. The Red Cross just doesn'thave the facilities up needed to house, etc...the volunteers.

good idea Gino, I know we have some stuff that we could sell, & we will send a check as well. I can not stop thinking about what it must be like I am driving Mr P nuts talking about what I see on the news. I keep reading OSO hoping to hear news about Jass and the others. I keep looking around my house thinking of all the things that I would miss & making mental notes of what I would take if we had to leave, which living in MI is highly unlikely. I don't even care about the other threads and looking at all that Stez nonsense is really getting to me. Sorry to ramble but this tragedy is something I can not stop thinking about

Rich,
I might take you up on that offer. I am headed down from DC sometime after they let people in.
My family has lost at least 7 homes in New Orleans when I count the Aunts and cousins. My mom's house is reportedly under 12 feet of water (which'll keep the damn looters out) but that is unconfirmed. I'll call you after I get more info.
My father is in Baton Rouge and helping organize the massive transportation effort.
I have a good friend in Slidell that rode the storm out and he owns a small trucking biz. I might be hauling him a hydraulic dump trailer down to give him more capacity for the cleanup effort (where are they going to put all that crap anyway???)
Ken Mobley
202-251-9016