Comedian Doug Stanhope‘s Indiegogo campaign to raise money for Rebecca Vitsmun (whose exchange with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer went viral) has more than doubled it’s target goal, raking in over $100,000.
Vitsmun has pledged to donate the funds she doesn’t need to a non-profit organization that will benefit other victims.
But what about everybody else who needs help?
Members of the FreeOK atheist group gathered over the weekend to help out those who needed wreckage removed from their property, as Kai Tancredi reports:
FreeOK, the organization hosting the Oklahoma Freethought Convention, put together a volunteer drive on Facebook, uniting individuals primarily from the OKC and Tulsa areas in an effort to assist victims of Sunday’s storms in Shawnee and Bethel Acres. Among this group of 42 volunteers were members of the Atheist Community of Tulsa, Oklahoma Atheists, a few Christians and some unaffiliated, good-hearted people who, through this one day of kindness, connected for a humanist cause and not a word either way regarding God was uttered.
When the property owner asked for a group photo, the resulting scene between Christian and atheist volunteers was not all that unexpected:
Anyway, one of the members called [volunteer Stephanie] aside and told her that she was with a group of atheists, that they were going somewhere else and that she should leave with them. Stephanie replied; ‘No. I’ve been with this group of people all day, I’m here to help and so are they.” The Assembly member then responded, ‘but you’re a Christian,’ indicating the cross she wore around her neck. Stephanie said, ‘Yes I am and I’m staying with them. I’m helping here. We are here to help, not judge.’”
I love that — when we’re in crisis mode, there’s no reason we can’t work together with people toward a common goal. There’s a time to set aside our differences, and this was obviously one of them… at least, for the atheists.
FreeOK helped in other ways, too:
They teamed with Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme to get breakfast to cemetery clean-up volunteers with Frontline Church in Moore, and to volunteers working through the Moore Community Center in the first week of response. They will continue to host volunteer drives in the outlying areas needing assistance in the coming weeks, like many local church organizations. The Red Dirt Party Bus, also owned by a secularist, has been used to run bulk donations around OKC and to distribution centers like the famously generous Grandad’s Bar on NW 23rd in OKC and out to Shawnee and Bethel Acres.
You can read more about the volunteers’ journey here.
Incidentally, Foundation Beyond Belief has raised over $40,000 for Operation USA and The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, two groups that will help people of all faiths and no faith. It’s not too late to donate, and the people of OK could still use your help.
(Thanks to Andrew for the link!)