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Region answers relief plea Photo by Steve Johnson Members of the Dunsmuir Lions Club drop off donations Monday at the Civil Air Patrol hangar at the Medford airport. Donations will be trucked to Portland and then shipped to Honduras to help victims of Hurricane Mitch. 125 tons of goods for Mitch's victims will be shipped soon By PETER WONG Operation Shoebox will offer more than shoeboxes in its first installment of aid to victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Organizers said Monday they are amazed by the local response to their appeals for canned food and clothing. "We are overwhelmed," said Dan Johnson, the Air National Guardsman from Medford who spearheaded the original Operation Shoebox a decade ago. "We were expecting probably 15 pallets. We have 50 right now and we're still getting stuff in." That means the group has collected approximately 125 tons of donations so far. Marthanne Dedrick of Medford, its community action coordinator, was at the Civil Air Patrol hangar at the Medford airport Monday to help with a caravan from Siskiyou County. "The humanitarian response in all of the `state of Jefferson' has just been phenomenal," she said. Hurricane Mitch left an estimated 10,000 dead in Central America _ 6,000 of them in Honduras, which has a sister-state relationship with Oregon _ and thousands more without homes or jobs because of the destruction of houses and cropland. U.S. military engineers have been sent to help Honduras repair roads and bridges, and U.S. helicopter pilots are available to carry loads to otherwise unreachable areas. Johnson said he has been in touch with a Honduran army area commander via e-mail. "He told us that a lot of poor people did not have money to store food," Johnson said. "The hurricane hit, and those who stored food are sharing it with those who did not, so food is a precious commodity there." The first truckloads of hurricane relief supplies left Medford Monday for Portland, where the 939th Rescue Wing eventually will fly them to Honduras. Operation Shoebox is connected with the Denton Humanitarian Airlift Program, which allows the free use of empty cargo space on Air Force and Air National Guard planes. "The great thing about it is that we collect the goods first and then submit the manifest," Johnson said. "They provide the plane to cover whatever we have on that manifest. Because Hondurans badly need these supplies, I don't see a problem." Operation Shoebox, a nonprofit organization now based in Newberg, was founded here a decade ago to provide health and school supplies packed in shoeboxes. Its scope has expanded to providing occasional volunteer services, donated equipment and money for specific projects that benefit children and adults, particularly for public health. The current operation is described as the first phase of relief. Johnson said Operation Shoebox is contemplating what form this year's shoeboxes and further aid will take. "It would be great if we could come up with 10,000 shoeboxes in memory of those who died and present them from the people of Oregon to the people of Honduras," he said. "We are asking people not to shut Hondurans out of their hearts and minds after we do this particular project. It's going to take them at least two years to recover." Operation Shoebox needs certain items Canned food and clothing for Honduran victims of Hurricane Mitch are still being accepted at designated collection centers until 4 p.m. Friday, but Operation Shoebox organizers also have these needs: Volunteers to help sort and pack donations. To volunteer, call Marthanne Dedrick at 779-0124 or Lilian Johnson at 772-0322 or 830-5577 (nights). A 40-foot truck to haul 30 tons of bottled water, already prepared for shipment, from a donor in Redding, Calif., to Medford or Portland. Call the numbers listed above. Cash donations to cover costs of medication and shipping supplies, such as slick wrapping and strapping tape. Cash donations, for which there is no deadline, can be sent to Operation Shoebox, P.O. Box 424, Medford, OR 97501. Designated collection centers for canned food and clothing are Southern Oregon Public Television, 34 S. Fir St., Medford; Rogue Federal Credit Union, 905 Stewart Ave., Medford, 1123 Royal Ave., Medford, and 415 Lithia Way, Ashland; Rogue River Rural Fire Protection District, 5474 N. River Road; Grants Pass Rural Fire Department, 321 S.E. G St.; and Youth Hostel, 150 N. Main St., Ashland. Cash donations also can be made at: American Red Cross , 60 Hawthorne St., Medford, OR 97501; Catholic Relief Services , P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090. These agencies ask that donors write "Mitch" on the checks. If a donation is intended for a specific country, name the country on the check. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA