The impact of Superstorm Sandy isn’t over. Not by any stretch. Thousands of people are still without homes, trying to recover from losing everything.
When people are displaced, they don’t get much say in what they get to bring with them … or leave behind. In many cases, families had to leave their pets behind. Now, months later, their pets are still waiting.
Nassau County put together a shelter in an old gymnasium in response to the emergency. More than 500 animals have passed through the doors. Today, they’re down to 125. Some animals were reunited with their owners, when their owners were able to find pet-friendly living situations. Other pets transferred to foster care, with hopes of returning to their forever families. Most situations are still temporary. The shelters were underfunded to begin with and certainly unprepared for the influx of displaced animals.
While this situation is truly heartwrenching, there are some amazing ICOSA friends whose hearts are bigger than we could imagine. JAKKS Pacific, a Los Angeles toy company, through its JAKKS™ Cares program, donated four pallets of pet supplies to go to the shelter in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. Often, donations like these are faced with prohibitive transportation costs—but big hearts intervened.
CAP Logistics, ICOSA’s sister company, arranged the transportation of this 1,700-pound donation through Land Air Express. Land Air offered to move the shipment from LAX to JFK at no cost, doubling the generosity of JAKKS Cares. CAP operations specialist, Lori Mantia, says, “We have an innate responsibility to help people. Many there have lost everything—their homes and the personal effects of their entire lives.”
This isn’t the first donation CAP has helped deliver to the hurricane victims. Mantia, a native New Yorker, headed a donation drive that resulted in a truckload of cleaning supplies, food, tools, clothing and toys that arrived in Long Beach in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The team at CAP Logistics also helped coordinate another shipment of toys from JAKKS Pacific to Long Beach, so parents would have a chance to “shop” for free before Christmas. Each of those shipments was moved at a greatly reduced cost or gratis.
There are more ways to help. The Nassau County Emergency Pet Shelter is looking for more volunteers to foster pets until their owners can take them back; especially cats. If you can help by sending gift cards for pet-supply stores or a donation of any kind, contact [email protected]. Any support is welcome.
We would like to express profound thanks to JAKKS Cares for the pet supplies and to Land Air Express for their part in transporting the latest donation. Your kindness is changing lives and CAP Logistics and ICOSA are proud to partner with you.