Hell and high water

Just as we were finishing up this festive holiday issue, Katrina slammed into the Gulf coast, destroying everything in its path: shoals, boats, homes, towns, jobs, stuffed toys, medications, trees, photo albums, bird cages, pearl earrings passed down from a grandmother, tax returns, tool sets, wills, school outfits, lives--human and animal.

Ever since, people everywhere have been trying to help. By sending money, of course. But money is not enough. What the victims need is hope and soap, supper, shelter and a safe place to hug their kids, pets, friends and each other--the kind of help that restores the mind as well as the body. Yet if you don't live close enough to offer on-the-ground aid, it's easy to feel paralyzed. Checkbook charity feels like the only option, but it doesn't feel like enough.

So we had a meeting with our sister publication, Better Nutrition, to try to come up with some better ideas, and we wound up frustrated. Then my mom called to say that a place where I had lived for years, Ridgefield, CT, had decided to adopt a Gulf coast town. Not for the next few weeks or months but for the next 5, 10, even 20 years--whatever it takes to get them back to normal. Brilliant!

And, finally, my own brain kicked in. Towns can adopt towns. We're a little family at VT and BN. We can adopt a family. Again, not for a few weeks but for however long it takes to get them back on their feet. But who? As I write this, our circulation department is gathering the names of every subscriber along the stricken Gulf coast. We'll start there and network out. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, we're all writing checks; AIM, our parent company, is matching donations to the Red Cross; our advertisers are shipping pallets of food and health supplies to rescue centers; one staffer is focusing on animal relief, another on organizing product donations.

If you're feeling paralyzed, check p. 88 for some great ways to get moving again. Step by step, family by family, town by town, it's how we can make the holidays brighter than seemed possible just a few days ago.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning