Fire department suspends relief drive for hurricane victims due to town’s overwhelming response

The Riverhead Fire Department’s hurricane relief drive is coming to a quicker-than-anticipated end.

The drive, to benefit the hard-hit Mastic Beach area, will be suspended after 9 p.m. tomorrow night. Community leaders in the area asked that no more additional supplies be delivered there until they can handle all of the items they’ve already received, according to a Riverhead Fire Department news release.

The Riverhead community’s response to the drive has been overwhelming, Riverhead firefighter Bill Sanok said. “We want to say thank you for being so generous.”

Leading the charge for the fire department was Amanda Starks, the wife of a Riverhead firefighter. Starks spent every night at the firehouse, bringing in volunteers and organizing donation events through social media.

“She’s a dynamic woman, a great person to work with,” Sanok said.

This weekend, they set up drop off locations in front of Stop and Shop on Route 58 as well as at Lowe’s home improvement store and Waldbaum’s. The items collected included clothing, outerwear, food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, pet food, batteries, flashlights and bottled water.

“We were inundated by so much stuff,” said Sanok. The community’s outpouring of support was so strong that the RFD had to stop collecting clothing and bottled water.

Sanok said that while he stood outside Stop and Shop on Saturday, one shopper came out with a full cart. He removed a small bag and left the cart for the volunteers. Sanok said the receipt showed the cart contained $100 worth of items. Similarly, at Lowe’s, they were given a donation of an entire flat cart, filled with cases of water, flashlights and batteries.

“So many people gave so much,” remarked Sanok.

The RFD chose to collect items specifically for the residents of the Mastic Beach-Shirley area. They were hit particularly hard, leaving homes uninhabitable and many personal items lost or destroyed, Sanok said. The RFD has been working in conjunction with Paul Casciano, Superintendent of William Floyd School District. The remainder of the collected items will be delivered after tomorrow night, when the donation drive ends. Community leaders from Mastic and Shirley are meeting today to discuss the best way to handle the donations. 

Those who still wish to make donations are asked to give gift cards for food or home improvement stores as well as local hardware stores, according to Bill Sanok of the RFD. He said people could also make donations to St. Jude’s or to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island in Manorville. 

RiverheadLOCAL photo by Peter Blasl