Food & Baby Supply Drive for United States Coast Guard

On Jan. 26th, RCYD held a countywide food and baby supply drive to support the members and family of the United States Coast Guard that have been affected by the Trump Shutdown. As an organization, we came together in record time to host drop-off locations in five cities across the county – and the turnout was incredible! We had to rent a 5x8 U-Haul trailer to deliver the donations and it was worth every minute and dollar spent. Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia came out to the Palm Springs location to visit with the public and drop off donations, and Congressman Mark Takano visited the Riverside location to do the same.

When we dropped off the donations, the young Coast Guardsman that accepted on behalf of the USCG Chief Petty Officer Association told us a little about his experience with the Trump Shutdown. He had not been able to go grocery shopping in some time because he wasn’t receiving a paycheck. At 19 years old, he has been in the Coast Guard for only 8 months – not a lot of time to save much money to survive with no paycheck and living alone. He seemed disheartened and not entirely optimistic about the prospects of it all starting over on Feb. 15th.

Boardmembers Maha Rizvi, Gracie Torres, and Sarah Gray delivered the donations that day, and were treated to a tour of the USS Narwhal. Huge shout-out to all of our members that volunteered at the drop-off locations and to the moms of two E-Board members who donated the cash for the U-Haul and gas to drive out to Corona Del Mar.