West Roxbury Gets Wicked Sharp about Hurricane Sandy Relief Drive

Boxes and bags of Luvs, Pampers, bottles of water, sweaters, sweatshirts, hats and more were piled on tables at the Irish Social Club on Monday afternoon.

Volunteers like West Roxbury's Thomas Bergeron brought in bag after bag of donations raised by the Wicked Sharp Ski & Sports Hurricane Sandy Relief Drive in the last week.

Said Bergeron (who heard about volunteering through a West Roxbury Patch tweet about volunteers being needed) spoke about why he came down to help. "We definitely wanted to donate our time because we didn't get hit hard, but we know people who did."  Bergeron added he has family in Long Island, NY, who were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

West Roxbury's Jocelyn Bourgault (who also heard about volunteers being needed from a West Roxbury Patch tweet) said she also participated in a virtual race for Hurricane Sandy relief, in which she ran a half-marathon with funds raised getting to help victims. 

The Irish Social Club agreed to store donations before they were to be driven to the Boys and Girls Club in Garfield, New Jersey, as organized by Wicked Sharp.

Wicked Sharp's Aaron Thompson was expecting to drive the boxtruck provided by Viridian Energy to New Jersey on Tuesday morning. 

Outside of the Club, Thompson was handing pallets of water and other supplies to volunteer Duban Molina of Hyde Park. Thompson estimated that 3/4 of the supplies came from donations brought to Wicked Sharp and dropped off at the Club, and the 1/4 came from the St. Theresa's community, which collected items this week at school and at Saturday's Christmas Bazaar.

Before a group of fewer than 10 volunteers started to sort through all the supplies to label them for boxes, Helen Mulvey Connors, of Jamaica Plain, said why she came to help.

"It's the thing to do when people are in need. This is the best I can do without going down there," said Connors as she moved another box of donated items.

Have you helped Hurricane Sandy victims? Let us know in the comments. Prayers count - don't let someone tell you otherwise.