(MOBILE, Ala.) September 3- Erin Akey has a plan to fill an empty truck.
"We're going to fill the truck hopefully with diapers, baby food, baby formula, canned goods," says Akey. It's all in an effort to help hurricane victims in Houma, Louisiana. Erin says she owes it to them.
"That was the lowest point of my life and now I want to give something back to those people."
Akey is herself a hurricane victim.
"We lost everything. I had a concrete slab left. That's it. We lost absolutely everything," Akey says, referring to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on her house in Bay St. Louis. "You just sit down and cry, you don't know what to think at that point."
The single mother of three stayed with friends in Houma. "That whole community was wonderful. They bought clothes for my children."
It was Houma, among other factors, that helped Akey rebuild her life in Mobile. "I met my husband here and he's now adopting my kids and God has blessed me tremendously since Katrina," says Akey. "It's better than it's ever been."
Now she's organizing a community effort to return the kindness. The truck is donated by a business her company does business with. She's hoping to fill it, and possibly a second, with donations from the community.
"How do you tell your kids everything you have, your whole life is gone and it's never going to be the same? I know what that feels like and I want to help someone who's going through that," says Akey.
Akey is looking for donations of baby food, formula, diapers, canned goods, cleaning supplies and money for fuel for the truck. She intends to drive the truck to Houma over the weekend. The drop-off spot is at "World Ship Supply" on 5880 I-10 Industrial Parkway in Mobile. For more information, call (251) 379-1721.
