#Sandy5 thanks to partners in Red Hook Sandy recovery

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Sandy flooded Red hook blocks Valentino Park.jpg

One of our #Sandy5 projects is to thank people who helped during #Sandy #recovery. It makes them (and us) feel good and provides a resiliency lesson in remembering what worked.

The Friday after the storm, PortSide set up an ran a Sandy aid center in Red Hook at 351 Van Brunt, then a virtual one, and then six months of monthly Sandy survivor meetings. Below is a list of people and groups that we worked with, and groups that provided services that were essential ones that we referred Sandy victims to.  Please forgive us if we forgot to mention you (it was a crazy time and our recordkeeping wasn't great), so please send us your name and how you worked with us if you want to be added here.

Looking ahead, let's continue to work together to become more resilient!

We thank our own staff who were the core of our recovery project team: Dan Goncharoff, Peter Rothenberg, Carolina Salguero.

Victoria Hagman and Realty Collective. Thanks for donating the space at 351 Van Brunt where we ran our Sandy aid center.

Gallery Brooklyn, thanks for letting our aid center exist in the middle of your gallery. We learned that the brightly colored art on the walls was uplifting for Sandy victims. Aid centers benefit from art!

Danny Schneider, principal of Schneider Electrical Contracting. Thanks for inspecting 60+ Red Hook homes for free and repairing many without charging for your labor.

John Liantonio of the Port Authority and former lobbyist of the cellphone industry in the northeast for 15 years. Thank you for calling the Senior Guy at Verizon at our request and getting Red Hook's Verizon internet service back up pronto! 

James Ellis.  Thanks for your indefatigable and cheerful presence working for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce at a table in our aid center. You helped many Sandy victims and buoyed our spirits.

"Medical Matt" Matt Kraushar, thanks for medical and moral leadership, and thanks for keeping so many people alive by creating and managing a system for medical monitoring and medical services; and then going on to write up and share your experience to all sorts of government and emergency response authorities. 

Callen- Lord (medical unit).

NYU nurses.

Kevin Curnin, Partner, Stroock Stroock & Lavan. Thanks for sharing for free your deep legal experience about disaster recovery learned due to 9/11 in NYC.

NYLAG thanks for dispensing so much free legal advice.

Alexandra Rizio, Start Small Think Big.

Rob Walsh, Small Business Services (SBS).

Occupy Sandy in many forms and especially:

  • Paulie Ann Duke link between Occupy and the community
  • Kirby Desmarais (now Kirby Costa-Campos) 
  • Sean Carrie
  • The “Clinton warehouse” stocked by Occupy & others which sent so much to Red Hook.

The amazing Red Hook volunteer dispatch program whose base moved around Red Hook. We worked mostly closely with the phase at SBIDC’s office , 402 Van Brunt and the Red Hook Volunteers at 360 Van Brunt.

  • Dave Meade & SBIDC
  • Gillian Kaye and Kerry Quade for organizing volunteers out of SBIDC’s office starting on day one after the storm and working for over a year on that and many other issues.
  • Carlos Menchaca, who left his job at the City Council speaker's office to donate his time to Red Hook Sandy recovery.
  • The people who set up the bike valet and bike messengers associated with volunteer dispatch at SBIDC office that facilitated hundreds of volunteers to bike to Red Hook and leave their bike. Prior to using that empty lot, literally hundreds of bikes were clogging the sidewalks near the volunteer center at 402. 
  • Bryan Ellicott for helping the volunteers and so many other things.
  • Red Hook Volunteers, Mike Elders, Jovan Burch.  Thanks for how you helped Red Hook and how you also helped us!
  • Adam Riff, thanks for creating the whole RHI volunteer database which got help to us, other helping organizations, and so many Sandy victims

Thanks to the people who cooked and gave away food! Thanks to the Red Hook restaurants who ran that free BBQ on Wednesday, 10/31 at the corner of Pioneer and Van Brunt. Not only did that feed people, it brought people together. That BBQ connected PortSide with the situation; we'd been in the container port for days, dealing with our ship MARY A. WHALEN, and it was through that BBQ that we learned about the depth of the destruction. Thanks to others who provided food:

  • Steve Tarpin, for cooking roast chicken and green beans for the community even though your Steve's Key Lime Pie business was damaged. Loved that meal!
  • Bill Durney and the folks at Hometown for running that free street BBQ.
  • Pizza Moto for using that mobile pizza oven to feed folks on the street.
  • Brooklyn Bangers for cooking outside our 351 aid center and giving away food.

IKEA Red Hook store, thanks for so many generous and inventive ways that you helped.

The Brooklyn Community Foundation for creating the Recovery Fund.

Department of Sanitation, thanks for clearing away so much sodden and then moldy stuff!

Marty Markowitz for many things and especially those huge, free dumpsters on Van Brunt Street. Those proved to be a model/inspiration for a much-later dumpster request for Pioneer Street.

The Mormon Church for a truckload of sanitation kits.

Melodie Buell who came from Bend Oregon to volunteer and ended up staffing the big volunteer line down on the pier deep into the winter.

Jalopy, thanks for the torrent of creative ways you helped from cooking and delivering food, housing, volunteer coordination, errands, sourcing donated material and more.  We remember working with you to try to find a dispatch place for the loads of sheetrock you had got for Red Hook and thinking "from music to sheetrock.... all in a day's work for Jalopy."

Richard Dennis, who had his home and business in two buildings damaged by Sandy, and still worked to help his senior neighbor Clyde down the street.  Bless you for getting Clyde back into his house before he died. Wish we'd had more resources to help your effort.

NYPD 76 precinct commander.

Craig Hammerman of Community Board 6 for lots of connections, insight on getting through red tape, moral support and for nominating us for the White House award.

Dan Wiley, thanks for your bottomless good heart and ever-present support while working for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez office.

Karen Broughton of NYS Assemblyman Felix Ortiz office. Were there three of you? You were everywhere. Thanks for all your aid to Red Hook and also to us.  We really appreciate how you have helped PortSide's own recovery.

Jim Vogel, working then for NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery's office. Thanks for helping Red Hook folks and thanks for helping one of our staff in Sheepshead Bay when his insurance company was giving him a run around.

One upside of Sandy was meeting and working with such great people. Thank you all!