Love INC in Hudsonville received donated items at their drop-off site on Van Buren Avenue throughout the month of November. The items will soon be headed to a World Renew Hurricane Sandy response site in New York or New Jersey where residents who are in the most need will receive the donated food, cleaning, supplies, and diapers to help them move down the road to recovery after the late October super-storm.

Love INC in Hudsonville received donated items at their drop-off site on Van Buren Avenue throughout the month of November. The items will soon be headed to a World Renew Hurricane Sandy response site in New York or New Jersey where residents who are in the most need will receive the donated food, cleaning, supplies, and diapers to help them move down the road to recovery after the late October super-storm.

Love INC of Hudsonville also donated more than $10,000 to World Renew’s 2012 hurricane response fund. The money, from donations and purchases made at the store on November 13 and 24, will be used by World Renew to assist those affected by Hurricane Sandy and other 2012 hurricane survivors with storm clean-up, damage assessment, demolition, home repair, and rebuilding.

“Our pre-Thanksgiving sale and donation event on November 13 went very well,” says Norma Berens, director of Love INC in Hudsonville. “But we wanted to be able to provide as large a donation as we could for World Renew’s disaster response work, so we scheduled second donation day on the November 24. With the proceeds from both days of sales, the donations we collected at the register, and the checks our supporters dropped off at the store, we received nearly $11,000 for World Renew’s Hurricane Sandy response.“ Berens adds that the proceeds represent a good response from the generous residents of the West Michigan area.

Based on the success of this first-time collaboration, World Renew DRS and Love INC of Hudsonville are considering additional ways to partner together in the future to benefit people who are in need in the Hudsonville area as well as assist disaster survivors across North America.

World Renew DRS volunteers have been active in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy, doing early damage assessments and working with homeowners to register them for assistance programs. Rapid Response teams also rotated into heavily damaged areas to continue to help residents with practical assistance like debris removal and mold prevention, as well as spiritual and emotional support.

The Love INC in Hudsonville resale shop and donation center is part of the organization’s work with churches and individuals in southeast Ottawa County, including the Hudsonville, Jenison, and Grandville areas, to address unmet needs in the local community.