Looks like the folks over at Awful Calgary have declared war on Mother Nature due to the recent flood.
While it PAINS us to agree with them on anything, no one can deny the fact that recent events in our area aren't just Awful, they're absolutely Horrible.
Many people from within Calgary and outside of town are wondering how they can help. It's a good question, and in fact, there are many ways!
For those of you out of town or wishing to donate monetary funds, you can do so through the Canadian Red Cross' special Alberta Floods Fund here:
http://www.redcross.ca/donate/donate-online/donate-to-the-alberta-floods
They accept PayPal too, so you can donate online through credit cards, PayPal balance or even through your bank account if you have that set up. You can also use prepaid credit cards or gift cards that you can purchase from many stores. They work fantastic, although some prepaid gift cards require you to register a valid address first before they can be used for online purchases.
If you'd like a bit more control and granularity over where your dollars go, our friend Gena Rotstein over at Place2Give.com has set up a special page where you can choose what organizations receive your donation. It's especially handy because some of those organizations aren't equipped to accept online donations through their websites at this time.
http://www.place2give.com/CalgaryFlood.html
Note that Place2Give applies a credit card processing fee of 3.9% to all transactions, which will be added to your donation total.
Keep an eye on Volunteer Calgary's blog for organizations looking for items to be donated:
http://volunteercalgary.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/calgary-flood-donation-drop-off-points-and-wish-lists/
It's being constantly updated as new requests for items from various organizations come in.
If you're interested in helping defy the odds to pull off The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth in time and on schedule for the citizens of Calgary and the rest of the world, keep an eye on the Calgary Stampede's special web page here for updates and for when a general request for assistance from the community goes out:
http://calgarystampede.com/waterissue
If you've got specialized equipment or skills that you'd like to donate to help with the recovery efforts, you can contact the City directly by sending an email to cema.logistics@calgary.ca. They're starting to reach out to people for that particular need, but only through that email address.
If you're looking for opportunities to help clean up or restore our city, keep an eye on the Calgary Clean Up Facebook page organized by one of our friends (as well as former and Founding Awesome Calgary Trustee) Brian Singh, or register yourselves as a volunteer at YYC Helps and you'll be the first to know when opportunities arise or when the general call for help goes out. They'll be coordinating with the City to ensure that the grassroots community recovery initiatives complement the official overall City efforts as well.
http://yychelps.ca
You can also register as a volunteer with Samaritan's Purse, which is useful if you'd like to help with cleanup efforts outside of the city of Calgary:
https://secure.samaritan.ca/donation/volunteer/
Or you can now register yourselves directly with the City as a volunteer!
The City of Calgary has set up a Volunteer Centre to bring able hands and recovery needs together.
Simply register your availability. Currently, they are not looking for specific skill sets (i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc). They are in need of generalists.
Volunteers can register as individuals or groups. To register, send an email with the following information to volunteer@calgary.ca:
- Name
- Phone Number
- Availability (For example, if you're available only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on any day but Tuesday, include that information in your email. But please, keep it simple!)
Volunteers can also register by calling any of the following numbers:
- 587-998-7817
- 587-998-7835
- 587-998-7837
- 587-998-7832
That's it for now. Keep an eye on The City of Calgary Twitter account at @cityofcalgary and the Calgary City News Blog for all the latest updates.
In the meantime, Stay Safe, Keep Calm and Stay Awesome! We'll get through this together.
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