#yycflood Ways to Help

The flood waters are starting to recede and cleanup has begun.   With so many of the downtown towers still closed, that has left a great number of people at home and wanting to help.  Calls for volunteers have been bringing people out in droves!  It is heartwarming to see how many people are ready and willing to step up and help out!  I love this city.
Since I have been planning to volunteer my vacation next week to the efforts, I have been looking at a whole bunch of different ways people can help out and I wanted to share them in case you were wanting to do something to help the efforts but didn't know where to start.
1) Volunteer
http://www.yychelps.ca
This website is an amazing resource for volunteering in this crisis.   Not only is it kept up to date with calls for volunteers, they are also compiling a database of volunteers so they will know who to call on for what jobs.  In just a few short days, it has gone from a Google form to an actual authenticated database.  You can even list if you are a trades person who can help or if you own equipment like pumps and generators.
Daily, they send an email with calls for volunteers.  There is something for everyone - from helping clean basements to sorting clothing donations to driving meals out to the volunteers in the crisis zones.  
Other resouces:

• Calgary Cleanup Facebook Group
• Volunteer Calgary

2) Park and Path Cleanup
Many of our city's beautiful parks were seriously damaged in the flooding.  There are several places that you can sign up to help clean them up.  To get an idea of the areas most heavily impacted, check out this map of pathway closures put together by the City of Calgary

• Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society - Flood Cleanup sign up sheet - they are planning a massive cleanup for July 13.
• Weaselhead Glenmore Park Preservation Society - no cleanup date set yet...but they have posted a State of the Trails and it will DEFINITELY need some TLC soon.  I have written to see if they are accepting volunteers.  I will post an update once I have heard.
• There will likely be other calls for path and park cleanup from the city once the situation can be properly assessed.

3) DONATE The damage to homes and lives is not covered by insurance.  Early predictions are that this will be around $5 BILLION in damages.  I expect that number will climb as the full extent of the damage is figured out.  For those who can't be here to help in person - you can help from afar by donating to the many organizations who are helping the city to heal after this tragedy.

• Canadian Red Cross Alberta Floods Response  - Call 1-800-418-1111 or donate online
  You can also donate at places like Starbucks and many other stores locally.

• Salvation Army Alberta Flood Relief Effort  - Donate online or call 1-800-725-2769.

• Samaritan's Purse Canada -  Donate online or Call 1-800-663-6500.

• Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre is also seeking various goods and supplies including socks, underwear, hygiene supplies, bug spray, blankets and pillows, towels and plungers. Call 403-699-8260