“Operation Cookout” is all about regular people in the community who get together for one goal, to lend a helping hand to our fellow New Yorkers. We are a group of friends who started a Cookout Operation in Rockaway Beach (our goal is to move to other hard-hit disaster areas in New York). We serve hot food and distribute supplies. For now, we are in the parking area near the 100th Precinct at 92-2
4 Rockaway Beach Boulevard. Initially we volunteered our time to shelters and relief centers all over the city. What we discovered was we would get turned down because there were overwhelming amounts of people wanting to help out, which was both surprising but comforting at the same time. Something still was unclear, if there were too many volunteers, then why were we still hearing pleas for help? We found that the overwhelming cry for volunteers was actually coming from the most hard-hit places such as the Rockaways, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Long Island because those were the places that were difficult to get to. After seeing for ourselves the devastation, just a few days after Hurricane Sandy left New York, there were just no words that could describe the horrific feeling that comes over you. With another impending Snow storm coming, we knew how important helping those residents who have lost so much, had become. How can anybody turn their backs on that and continue on splurging when there are so many out there displaced, freezing and hungry. We have to do something, we have to spread the word and make everyone realize the severity of the situation. We recognize that our small contribution was not going to be enough, so we reached out to our families/friends for anything they can give whether it’s donations or just their hands to help. We have gotten so much support, that this has become bigger than we expected. We hope for as long as we are getting donations and friends who want to volunteer, we will continue to get a group to go out every weekend to the Rockaways and the other areas. We are very thankful and happy to say this past weekend (Sat 11/10/12 and Sun 11/11/12), we had our First Successful “Operation Cookout” in the Rockaways. We are so elated that we were able to collect a sufficient amount of donations and had about 20 friends that were able to come out and help us serve hot food, hand out clothing and essentials. We are also extremely appreciative to those random people who decided on their own accord to drop off more food for us to grill and other essential supplies to hand out. Please spread the word to everyone you know. If you would like to contribute in any way whether it is to give food, clothing, basic essential items, or monetary donations or just lend a hand, we are always in need of any man/woman-power! You can send us a private message here or email us at [email protected]
Any help, can mean the world
