On September 9, the North Fork Chamber of Commerce held a hurricane relief drive with the intention of sending emergency supplies to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. See prior story.
North Fork residents responded in a big way, bringing box after box of diapers, food, batteries and other necessities to the IGA in Southold, where everything was loaded into a truck donated by Jernick Moving & Storage.
But before the Jernick truck had a chance to head to Texas, Hurricane Irma reared her ugly head in Florida and the NFCC was faced with deciding how to help both states as they dealt with the aftermath of two powerful storms.
“Last minute decisions had to be made,” said NFCC board member Andy Binkowski, who worked tirelessly organizing the drive. “And we wanted to help the most number of people that we could.”
Since Texas had been receiving supplies for several weeks, the NFCC decided to send the truckload of goods to Florida and the $1,900 in cash donations to the food bank in Corpus Christi, Texas.
“Not knowing what the circumstances were going to be we felt it was probably in the best interest to get goods to Florida since Texas was slowly on the mend and maybe more able to get supplies,” said Binkowski.
After contacting food banks in Naples and finding that they were being inundated with supplies, they called around in Jacksonville, another area devastated by Irma.
“We ended up sending the donations to the Mandarin Food Pantry in Jacksonville,” Binkowski said.
On September 16, after two days on the road, the 18-wheel truck piloted by Dick Jernick and co-piloted by his wife Martha pulled up in front of the Mandarin Food Pantry at St. Joseph’s Church.
Bob Cook of Jacksonville, an assistant Boy Scout leader, was there when the truck arrived.
“What a great experience,” said Cook, who is originally from Westchester. “I’ve donated supplies and worked on disaster relief before, but it was the first time I’d helped unload supplies in my own community.”
Over two dozen Scouts and leaders helped unload the truck, Cook said, along with members of the local Knights of Columbus and volunteers from the church community.
“Everything imaginable was in those boxes,” he said. “But the most amazing this was that many of the boxes were marked with messages of love and support like ‘good luck’ and ‘we love you.’”
It turns out that those messages were written by the volunteers at the drop off point in Southold, said Richard Jernick of Jernick Moving & Storage.
“It was an unbelievable gesture,” he said. “The NJROTC and the other kids volunteering put those notes on the boxes.”
The fact that everything had been carefully sorted, boxed and labeled before being packed into the moving truck did not go unnoticed by those who unloaded the truck.
“We thought that would make it a lot nicer on the receiving end,” said Jernick.
Bonnie McNulty, co-director of the Mandarin Food Pantry in Jacksonville was, she said, “overwhelmed” when she saw what was in the truck.
“It’s the largest donation we’ve ever received,” said McNulty. “We are so grateful for the generosity of the entire North Fork community. We know that they made a lot of sacrifices and that’s why we’re going to give the donations out honorably and make sure that people who need it get it.”
The food pantry has contacted several churches and schools nearby and is sharing donations with those in the most need.
“Please tell everyone in your community how grateful we are,” said McNulty.
“Please tell them ‘thank you’ from all of us.”
