NEW
YORK (AP) — You might be surprised at what has become a lauded and
effective relief organization for victims of Superstorm Sandy: Occupy Wall Street.
The
social media savvy that helped Occupy protesters create a grass-roots
global movement last year — one that ultimately collapsed under its
leaderless format — is proving a strength as members fan out across New
York to deliver aid including hot meals, medicine and blankets.
They're
the ones who took food and water to Glenn Nisall, a 53-year-old
resident of Queens' hard-hit and isolated Rockaway section who lost
power and lives alone, with no family nearby."I said: 'Occupy? You mean Occupy Wall Street?'" he said. "I said: 'Awesome, man. I'm one of the 99 percent, you know?'"
Occupy Wall Street was born in late 2011 in a lower Manhattan plaza called Zuccotti Park, with a handful of protesters pitching tents and vowing to stay put until world leaders offered a fair share to the "99 percent" who don't control the globe's wealth.
The world heard the cry as that camp grew and inspired other ones around the globe. Ultimately, though, little was accomplished in the ways of policy change, and Occupy became largely a punch line. But core members, and a spirit, have persisted and found a new cause in Occupy Sandy.
It started at St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn the day after the storm, where Occupiers set up a base of operations and used social media like Twitter and Facebook to spread the word.
There
is a sense of camaraderie reminiscent of Zuccotti, as young people with
scruffy beards and walkie-talkies plan the day's activities. Donations
come in by the truckload and are sorted in the basement, which looks
like a clearinghouse for every household product imaginable, from canned
soup and dog food to duvet covers."This is young people making history," said Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University who has been studying Occupy Wall Street. "Young people who are refusing to let people suffer without putting themselves on the line to do something about it."
Now the group has
dozens of relief centers across the city and a stream of volunteers who
are shuttled out to the most desperate areas. It is partnering with
local community and volunteer organizations.
A
recent post on Occupy Sandy's Facebook page announced: "Attention! If
anyone in Rockaway needs to have their basement pumped, please contact
Suzanne Hamalak at suzybklyn(at)aol.com. Her family wants to help and
have industrial pumps...they will do it for free....."
In
Rockaway Park, Occupier Diego Ibanez, 24, has been sleeping on the
freezing floor of a community center down the street from a row of
charred buildings destroyed by a fire.
"You see a need and you
fulfill it," he explained. "There's not a boss to tell you that you
can't do this or you can't do that. Zuccotti was one of the best
trainings in how to mobilize so quickly."
There
is little public transportation in the neighborhood, where most people
still don't have power and many homes were wrecked. Occupy has supplied
residents with hot meals, batteries and blankets. Medics and nurses
knock on doors to check on the elderly.
At one Occupy outpost in Rockaway, residents wandered in recently off the garbage-strewn streets looking for medicine.
They
lined up in an ice-cold abandoned store that had been hastily
transformed into a makeshift pharmacy. Gauze bandages and bottles of
disinfectant were piled on tables behind a tattered curtain.
"I
think we wouldn't be able to survive without them," said Kathleen Ryan,
who was waiting for volunteers to retrieve her diabetes medication,
stamping her feet on the plywood floor to keep warm. "This place is
phenomenal. This community. They've helped a great deal."
Is
this Occupy Wall Street's finest hour? In the church basement, Carrie
Morris paused from folding blankets into garbage bags and smiled at the
idea.
"We always had mutual
aid going on," she said. "It's a big part of what we do. That's the
idea, to help each other. And we want to serve as a model for the larger
society that, you know, everybody should be doing this."
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