Staff at a restaurant in downtown Chatham are overwhelmed by the support they have received from the community for flood victims in Houston, Texas.
Ruth Vanhumbeck, who is a waitress at Mamma Maria's Ristorante, says staff at the restaurant have been collecting donations that are going to be loaded up in a transport truck and shipped south to help some of the people who have lost everything as a result of the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Harvey.
She says they are planning to take about five or six vehicles full of clothes and toiletries to a drop-off point near the Michigan border Thursday night.
"They're trying to bring over loads and stuff tonight," says Vanhumbeck. "That way they can get it into the truck because I believe the truck leaves at 1:30pm [Friday] afternoon to go to Algonac to pick up more stuff and from Algonac to Texas."
She says the support for their efforts has been incredible.
"We've got so much stuff," says Vanhumbeck. "It's a lot of kids stuff, toiletries, baby blankets, a lot of clothing, shoes, shampoo, all the necessities that everybody will need -- because they need everything."
It's not the first time that the staff at Mamma Maria's have organized something like this, either. Vanhumbeck says she also recently helped to put together a spaghetti fundraising dinner for fire relief efforts in Alberta.
"If we were in that circumstance, we would really appreciate the help from people from that way and that's the way I have been brought up my whole life," says Vanhumbeck. "It's devastating to see how much these people have lost."
The deadline has already passed for donations to be dropped off at Mamma Maria's for the current truckload, but Vanhumbeck says they are considering collecting more donations for a second truckload -- possibly in about two weeks.