articles

Relief from Hurricane Michael - Hatching Hope to Deliver Donations

By Jess Searcy October 16, 2018

If you are wondering how to help victims of Hurricane Michael, Hatching Hope, a Birmingham based non-profit focused on disaster relief, is currently taking donations of clean up supplies, new and used clothing, toiletries, pet supplies, new and used stuffed animals and many other items.  The organization plans to make several trips down to devastated areas to deliver needed supplies.

We discovered Hatching Hope when one of our neighbors posted about donations on our neighborhood Facebook page. I was eager to find a home for several bags of outgrown children's clothing, and excited to learn that I could help people in the Florida panhandle at the same time. I even went through my own closet and put together a bag of women's clothing. It is a lot easier to give up items knowing they are going to such a worthy cause!

Taking the clothing over to the donation facility was a good lesson in charity for our guys too, who saw the warehouse walls stacked with hundreds of boxes filled with disaster relief kits.


Disaster relief kits, put together by a bus load of student volunteers from Alabama School of Fine Arts, line the walls at the Hatching Hope warehouse.


While we were there, I met one of the co-founders who shared the Hatching Hope story with me.  Hatching Hope was started by Keli Lynch-Wright and her son, Ashton, when they lost their own home in a fire, years ago. Now they spend their time helping others going through disasters, providing hope in the face of calamity.

Recently, they also started a once a month market place to sell the overabundance of donated items, and use the resulting funds to augment their disaster relief efforts. You can help by donating and shopping at the marketplace.

Keli also showed me where they assemble kits for pets, whom she says are often forgotten during disasters.

Here are some specific items that are needed for relief from hurricanes:

  • personal care products and toiletries
  • cleaning and clean up supplies
  • paper products
  • baby and infant supplies
  • first aid supplies
  • candles, flashlights and batteries 

Always welcome items for all kinds of disasters are the following items:

  • air mattresses
  • pillows and pillowcases
  • new and gently used stuffed animals
  • pet supplies
  • blankets and sheets

Donations may be brought directly to the following address (where the warehouse and market place are located)

374 Shady Acres Road
Alabaster, Alabama 35007

(205) 966-6835

Visit the Hatching Hope Facebook page for hours.


Here's a 5-minute video from Hatching Hope to give you a better idea about what Hatching Hope does and what is needed!


You may also like



Fall Family Fun in south Birmingham!


---------------------- 

Get a FREE kid-friendly event calendar for families living from downtown B'ham and south to Alabaster full of festivals, fairs, activities, events and more! Sign up by clicking HERE!

Macaroni Kid South Birmingham is a free weekly e-newsletter and website focused on fun family events and things to do with kids in the South Birmingham region. We gather together all kinds of local family events and activities each week, and add useful information about classes, family-focused businesses, book and product reviews, recipes, crafts, school and camp guides and more. We proudly serve families in downtown Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Pelham, the Oak Mountain and 280 area, Helena and Alabaster.