Hold back some Katrina money: Update

I said last Saturday Katrina relief giving then was very important, but suggested you hold back for a few weeks or months some of what you could afford to give.

That way, as you learned more about who did what and were doing what, you could target your giving to groups, sometimes small and volunteer staffed, who you thought were especially effective.

I said I wanted to target some of my money to those who:

during the worst hours in the worst places (acted) heroically to make things better. Ministers, for example, who with their congregants and others organized to feed neighbors and homeless, and (cared) as best they could for the sick.

Instapundit calls our attention to a group that acted just that way. Here's part of their story:

When their homes began to sink in Katrina's floodwaters, elders in the quarter here known as Uptown gathered their neighbors to seek refuge at the Samuel J. Green Charter School, the local toughs included.

But when the thugs started vandalizing the place - wielding guns and breaking into vending machines - Vance Anthion put them out, literally tossing them into the fetid waters. Anthion stayed awake at night after that, protecting the inhabitants of the school from looters or worse.
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In the week after Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, Anthion and others created a society that defied the local gangs, the National Guard and even the flood.

Inside the school, it was quiet, cool and clean. They converted a classroom into a dining room and, when a reporter arrived Monday, were serving a lunch of spicy red beans and rice. A table nearby overflowed with supplies: canned spaghetti, paper towels, water and Gatorade, salt, hot sauce, pepper.

At its peak last Wednesday, 40 people called the second and third floors home. The bottom floor was under water. Most of those taking up residence at the school were family, friends and neighbors of the poor, forgotten niches of this community.

Anthion and the other Uptown elders don't seem to have a formal organization to which we could send money, but if they do, they'll get some of mine.

Meanwhile, their story is both inspiring and a reminder of the countless small groups and organizations, frequently staffed by volunteers, who are doing critical, sometimes unique, recovery work by operating in ways and filling niches the large relief agencies often can't.