More
than 2,700 volunteers go to the United Methodist-related Sager Brown
Depot each year to process disaster relief supplies, distribute boxes of
food to seniors and assist the surrounding community in Baldwin, La.
But
some volunteers, like Evelyn Lewis, have a special connection to the
center, now run by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Lewis,
who has lived near Bayou Teche in Baldwin for seven decades, remembers
Sager Brown as a haven from the racial prejudices of the South. She
attended school there as a child, during a time when teaching
African-Americans to read and write was illegal.
Sager
Brown School offered subjects such as French and chemistry during a
time when teaching African-Americans how to read or write was illegal.
Sager
Brown School started in 1867 as an orphanage for African-American
children left homeless by the Civil War. Before the school closed in
1978, it offered subjects such as French and chemistry, even during a
time when teaching African-Americans how to read or write was illegal.
UMNS photo number W04038, Accompanies UMNS #053, 2/11/04
"We
had subjects here that the public schools didn't have then," says
Lewis, who became a teacher. "In the 10th grade, I had chemistry and
French."
Sager
Brown opened its doors in 1867 as an orphanage for African-American
children left homeless by the Civil War. Later, students would come from
all over the country seeking educational opportunities at the school.
The United Methodist Women organization has owned the property since the
early 1900s.
The
school at Sager Brown closed in 1978, but after Hurricane Andrew
battered Louisiana in 1992, the United Methodist Committee on Relief
created a center at the 25-acre site for storage and distribution of
relief supplies. Those supplies are used to respond to human suffering
throughout the world.
Volunteers
help by processing donated supplies and creating items such as health
kits, school kits, sewing kits, layette kits and flood buckets and
preparing them for shipment. Volunteers also are involved in local
community outreach programs, ranging from the rehabilitation of houses
to assistance in public schools.
Three
generations of Lewis' family found new opportunities through Sager
Brown, and she currently helps distribute boxes of food in the "Food for
Seniors" program. "Now they are helping everybody, worldwide," she
says. "And I think that's a wonderful thing."
Volunteers at the Sager Brown Depot sort supplies for relief items such as health kits, school kits and flood buckets.
Volunteers
at the Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, La., sort supplies for relief
items such as health kits, school kits and flood buckets and process
them for shipment. The United Methodist Committee on Relief operates
the depot. UMNS photo number W04037, Accompanies UMNS #053, 2/11/04
As
of February, material resources were urgently needed to replenish
supplies at the Sager Brown Depot, according to Executive Director Gwen
Redding. The depot just shipped a load of health kits to Armenia on Jan.
20 and is planning to send cargo containers of goods to Angola and
Afghanistan, as well as health and school kits to Iran. Each container
can hold 14,000 to 30,000 kits - valued at $167,000 to $360,000 per
load.
Bulk
items needed for the kit program include toothpaste, cloth baby diapers
and ruled paper. Specific information about the needs at Sager Brown
can be found at www.sagerbrown.org, the depot's Web site. Information
also is available by calling the depot toll free at (800) 814-8765
Monetary
donations also are encouraged. Checks, earmarked for UMCOR Advance No.
901515, UMCOR Sager Brown, can be dropped in church collection plates or
mailed to UMCOR Sager Brown, P.O. Box 850, Baldwin, LA 70514.
Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800) 554-8583.
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