Bringing the holidays to a town in need

Caleb Harbeck, a 16-year-old Oceanside High School junior, spent Veterans Day upstate in Prattsville.

The area, south of Schenectady, was hit hard when Tropical Storm Irene caused extensive flooding, and Harbeck, along with other members of the First United Methodist Church of Oceanside, spent the day helping to clean an older woman’s house. Mud was caked five feet high on the side of the house, and though the inside wasn’t as bad, there was still more to be done, and the house had no heat.

It was that experience that made Harbeck decide to help the residents of Prattsville even more by lending a hand in giving them holidays to celebrate this winter. “The experience of going to the lady’s house there, it really showed how FEMA” — the Federal Emergency Management Agency — “wasn’t rushing the whole situation up there,” Harbeck said. “They cut out all her drywall to my hips, and I’m pretty tall, so it was a lot. And then the mud line outside on the side of her house was at my shoulder.”

“The United Methodist Church New York Area Conference was making an effort to help that area, because that is a part of our conference,” said the Rev. Hikari Chang of First United Methodist. “We were [told there were] many, many things that we could do.”

“She didn’t have a heater because it was damaged,” Chang said of the elderly woman. “So she was using a wood stove and sleeping in front of the wood stove.” The woman had an oil tank outside that had been donated to her, but workers were scarce and it had not been connected.

Among the First United Methodist contingent were a plumber and an electrician, who thought they could hook up the tank for her. “So we connected the tank,” Chang said. “So it’s working now.”

Harbeck is now working with the school district in the area — which covers three counties and nine towns — to provide gifts for families. “When I contacted the secretary of the school district up there,” he said, “she said they were having a party and they had some gifts, but there probably wasn’t enough for all of the kids.”

Working with some of his teachers at OHS, Harbeck set up boxes in the school — including in the main office — where people can drop off donations. They can also be made at the church, at 2837 Davison St. The collections at the church and the school are two different drives, but all the money is going to the same place.

Harbeck is looking not only for toys for children, but also for gifts for teenagers and parents. Gift cards for stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s are good choices for adults, he said, so they can use them to help rebuild. Chang added that tools and cleaning supplies would be useful. Toys should be wrapped, and labeled for either boy or girl and the age group. The drive will continue until Dec. 9, and Harbeck will take the gifts upstate on Dec. 10.

“When we went through the town,” Harbeck recounted, “to see the kids’ toys on the sides of the road, it really said, these kids basically have nothing.”