Open Thread Tuesday: Prayers and Donations

This couple lost their home and all of their worldly possessions yet, the look on their faces is a look of thankfulness.

Seventy-five percent of the town is gone and 116 people are confirmed dead.

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Please help. All the information you need to do so is after the jump.

The Salvation Army:

To support The Salvation Army’s relief efforts, you can donate:

• Online at www.salvationarmyusa.org
• Over the phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY
• Via text. Send “JOPLIN” to 80888 to make a $10 donation. Confirm when prompted with “yes.”
• Mail a check to:

The Salvation Army

3637 Broadway

Kansas City, MO 64111

Please designate the gift “Joplin Tornado.”

And this is great news – NBC Action News in Kansas City is sponsoring a telethon tonight from 5-7 PM to raise money for The Salvation Army tornado relief efforts in Joplin and Reading, Kansas. Call 816-932-HELP to donate. The lines will be live from 5-7 PM only.

CAN I DONATE SOMETHING BESIDES MONEY?

Many have asked about donating in-kind items, such as clothes, toys, or furniture. The Salvation Army is not accepting gifts in-kind, since there are not suitable facilities to store these items, and manpower to sort and transfer them are also limited. Monetary gifts are flexible and portable, and they allow our disaster teams to purchase the exact supplies they need, when they need them, in the amounts they need. Click here for more information on this topic.

The local Salvation Army centers have not expressed a need for volunteers at this time, but you can register your name here in our disaster database should a need arise.

Convoy of Hope:

Donate to Convoy of Hope’s U.S. Disaster Response.

“Our prayers go out to the families in Joplin who lost loved ones, homes and businesses,” says Hal Donaldson, president of Convoy of Hope.

Convoy of Hope’s World Distribution Center in Springfield is less than 90 miles from Joplin.

“Many people in Joplin have supported Convoy of Hope over the years as we have responded to disasters in the United States and around the world,” adds Donaldson. “Today, it’s time to give back. We will do everything in our power to help the people of Joplin recover from this tragedy.”

Click here to help.

Early this morning a Convoy of Hope tractor-trailer loaded with water and food left the World Distribution Center. More trucks and disaster response teams followed and took more food, water and snacks.

Teams will deliver food, assess the damage and connect with partners to learn how Convoy of Hope can best serve the devastated community.

The Red Cross:

Donate online

If you want to volunteer to help, please call 2-1-1 if you are in the Ozarks area, or 1-800-427-4626 if you are outside the area.

Heart to Heart:

Heart to Heart has already deployed volunteer medical professionals, supplies and our Mobile Medical Clinic.

Your support is needed now. Please give or sign up to volunteer.

Drop-off donations:

The Christian Campus House at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville will collect donations today including flashlights and batteries, toiletries, blankets, clothing of all sizes, (new) underwear of all sizes, baby supplies — diapers, wipes, formula, water and non-perishable food items.Donations can be cropped off at the Christian Campus House at 904 College Ave. in Maryville. The van will leave at midnight tonight.

•Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield is accepting donations of non-perishable food and water, and new blankets, boxes and more items. Donations can be brought between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. through Thursday to the parking lot at the corner of National Avenue and Chestnut Expressway on the college’s Springfield campus.

This was the worst tornado in the US in the past 64 years. An entire community devastated. Together we can help them get back on their feet.