By JOSEPH KELLARD
Oceanside and the surrounding communities have restored my faith in America," said Nanci Cacossa after organizing relief drives for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "People here just poured out their hearts and just donated so many things. It's touched my heart so, how people just opened themselves up to help. It's just been unbelievable."
Each of the Oceanside resident's three drives resulted in the loading of a 54-foot tractor trailer, the largest truck on American roads, with various donated goods. The initial drives were held on successive Saturdays in September in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, one at the Great Lincoln Shopping Center on Atlantic Avenue and the second at South Nassau Communities Hospital.
Each truck left the parking lot destined for a hub in Beaumont, Texas, where the donations were stored before being distributed to the storm victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. SNCH was also the site of Cacossa's last drive, held during the hospital's annual health fair and 5K Walk/Run Oct. 2, where another packed 18-wheeler headed to Hurst, Texas, an area ravaged by Hurricane Rita. At each drive, Oceansiders and others arrived in droves with their donations, and some were still arriving even after the trucks were loaded.
Cacossa got the idea for the relief project while watching images of areas destroyed by Katrina on television and thinking about the children left homeless. She wrote a heartfelt e-mail to family, friends and many others. With their help - particularly her friends Jacki Feldbaum of Oceanside and Susan Abrams of Baldwin, and administrators, teachers and staff throughout the Oceanside school district - word of Cacossa's drive spread swiftly. Four days later she had the first rig packed to its rim. Donations included everything from canned and boxed foods to new and second-hand clothing to blankets, diapers and toiletries to pots, pans, linens, strollers, toys, bicycles and a microwave oven still sealed in its original box.
"[Nanci] would not sit," said Feldbaum, who assisted Cacossa by posting fliers announcing the relief drives throughout Oceanside schools. "I don't think anyone ever expected it to get this big. We looked at the first truck ... and thought, oh my god, how are we going to fill it? And you know what? We did it - and we had to turn people away."
The vice president of a plastics company that uses tractor trailers to ship its products, Cacossa and her employer, along with other affiliated companies, private citizens and Oceanside businesses and organizations, donated the funds to cover the costs of the freight. Cacossa said she "got goose bumps and cried" on receiving word from a distributing coordinator at the hub in Beaumont, who said he was overwhelmed to receive the first fully loaded trailer from Oceanside. It was "so well received," she said.
"Nanci has a very big heart," said Abrams, who, along with her husband, Red, and son, Peter, helped load the trailers. "And when she sees someone in need, she goes into helping them full-fledged."
Abrams said that it is characteristic of Cacossa to get others involved in any cause she adopts. "When [Nanci] told me she was doing this," she explained, "I told her she just answered my prayers ... Nanci is the type of person who thinks of things and gets the ball into action."
Another factor that contributed to Cacossa's decision to stage the drives was that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina overlapped with the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11. Cacossa has close friends whose relatives were killed in the World Trade Center attacks. While planning the first drive, she recalled the aftermath of that horrific day, but mainly the spiritual and material support Americans nationwide showered on her friends and their families.
"Friends of mine lost loved ones on 9/11, families that were just left with the mother and small children here in Oceanside," Cacossa said. "People came from all over the country to help us. So how can I not do this? It's my way of saying we're part of this country, too, and thank you."
In the wake of massively destructive storms that left thousands of Americans homeless, and in the face of reports of the subsequent pillaging and violence in New Orleans, Cacossa demonstrated virtues that are at the core of the American spirit: the benevo-lence to assist fellow human beings who need help and the initiative, in the face of a tragedy, to correct problems and get victims back on the road to normalcy. For her untiring efforts, which produced dramatic results, the Herald is proud to name Nanci Cacossa its Person of the Year.
