Children's Advocacy and the Container of Sadness. Cory Trusty. International Chinese Medical Journal of Daytona Resonant Moon-7 (day 17) Blue Crystal Storm Year (January 26, 2005), Volume 2:3.

Recently I have been thinking about the best way to distribute charitable donations within a community. These musings were triggered by the incredible waste I observed recently behind the Children's Advocacy Center, which according to their signage is under the umbrella of the Department of Children and Families. This organization is located on S. Beach St. in down town Daytona.

Here you can see in the series of pictures over a ton of donations which were discarded by this organization recently. As of today, the dumpster is still there and full.

Notice that many items are bagged or sealed in plastic containers. Other items such as large plastic toys were also found.

This is a small fraction of the items that I recovered from this site.
Hand Made by Quilters By the Sea, Inc. Ormond Beach, Florida and Project Linus, Port Orange, Florida. These items were double bagged. Bags were labeled on the exterior by the former coordinator of Project Linus, Marian DenDulk of Port Orange. When I spoke to her on the phone she told me "I donated those items over 2 years ago. It's been that long since I was the coordinator."
Hand-made by Halifax Medical Center Auxiliary, Daytona Beach, Florida

So what the hell were these people thinking to hoard these items and then throw them away? I couldn't imagine so I asked Danielle Paquet who works for this organization. At first she told me "water damage," presumably from hurricane. When I told her that these items were not water damaged, she told me that there had been evidence of rats in the room with the donations and it had undergone pest-control. I asked her why they didn't wash the materials and she said they didn't have the facility. Of course there are about a dozen women there who you know have washing machines at home. I told Danielle that the women who spend hours making the items left their contact informations, which was in the original sealed bags. They would have surely liked to have had them returned so that they could wash the items themselves.

So was the Children's Advocacy center really doing the right thing in throwing away these donations? I provided the following scenario to a couple of professional environmentalists: A room is full of children's toys, plastic, and cloth, as well as blankets and clothing. The blankets and clothing are sealed or double sealed in plastic bags. The room received some water damage and due to evidence of rats, there was anti-rat pet control. You may assume the most toxic with in current legal standards. I asked "What could be done, if anything, in order to make the these items safe for distribution? Eric Khambatta, Environmental Scientist of Washington state provided the following answer. "I talked to some people in the office and they agreed with me on these points. All clothes and blankets that were protected in plastic bags would be OK to redistribute if there was no water intrusion and no infestation by the rats (rats eating through plastic). As a precautionary measure all the clothes and blankets that can be saved from the sealed bags should be washed in a commercial washing machine in hot water with soap and bleach if possible. All the soft plastic toys (silicone or any type of plastic that you would suspect of absorbing anything) and cloth toys should be thrown out. No exceptions." JAYNE BOND, professional environmental toxicologist of New York City provided the following answer: "Toxic substances such as rat poison are really a poison at a toxic level when ingested by youngsters. You may have the problem of the rats who ate the poison, then defecating on the toys etc. which would give residual contamination, not to mention harbor harmful biological pathogens such as bacteria and other parasites from rodents. Most cleansers that are in the bleach family will work to kill pathogens and remove residual contamination which gets bound to protein(ie. old milk, feces, urine). My suggestion would be to take these items outside and use a bleach type cleanser along with as hot water as you can stand (hydrogen peroxide also works) and clean them thoroughly of all types of oils and get off all dirt out of all the crevices. Then use a regular hose for a few minutes to simply water the heck out of them. Allow them to dry for a 24 hour period before giving to children, or whenever the bleach smell wears off. If the toys are small enough, one of the best things you can do is use the dishwasher as it gets hot enough to clean all the toys. This should be all that is required to make these safe for other children."

So wash with bleach solution! This sounds pretty much like common sense for ANY items that you find in a dumpster. Moving right along, this afternoon I proceeded to give a tour of this site to fellow scavenger. We were approached by Danielle Paquet who appeared unhappy to learn that I had consulted environmental scientists regarding safe recovery of the items. This time she threatened to call the police if I returned. She told me that "OSHA had sent them a letter, that they should throw everything out." This makes no sense as there are obviously recognized standard methods for decontamination as well as the fact that many items were simply not contaminated. Notwithstanding, why is a Children's Advocacy center accumulating an obscenely massive hoard of donations? Why are they being hidden away in when there are those in need within Daytona Beach, Volusia county, North America, and globally. My neighbor Cathy helped me with the excavation. "You know, this is so sad," she said. "There are so many families in this town who didn't have a Christmas. If they knew about this dumpster they would be there. It is a container of sadness."

Shame on you Children's Advocacy Center, Department of Children and Families for your blatant waste and negligence in Advocating for Children! How much insurance money or FEMA money will you receive as a result of this write off? I suggest you donate some to the women who purchase materials to hand make these items for kids. Lets see you use it to fill up another container full of new clothing for children and mothers, sealed packages of new diapers, pencils, activity books, new sealed containers of legos, big wheel toys, strollers, baby swings, sit-in activity chairs, bags of easter bunnies, fanciful picture frames, plastic toys of all kinds with working batteries. Give these items away to those in need. Not sure where to start? How about to the households of those families that you invade and search each day, based on claims of child abuse or neglect...a multitude of false claims coming out of spite and neighborhood turf battles. On behalf of those of us you needlessly harass, I dare you to redeem yourself. Take these items as gifts to the homes of those whose privacy you have invaded and found after anxiety-ridden hours, days, weeks, months of investigation that all was well. I know these families and will humbly congratulate you here for all to read if I receive reports of this action among these community members.

In the mean-time where can we as individuals safely make charitable donations? Go to the neighborhoods. Talk to people. Ask who is in need. Another good way is to join freecycle.org (thanks for the tip wise women). Monitor the postings to see if there are those in need of what you have in excess. Unfortunately, this group is not accessible to those on the wrong side of the digital divide, but at least it can prevent the waste of durable goods such as these.

If you have a desire to give donations to people who are in need and who will appreciate and be thankful for items, please consider sending items to the Seneca nation in New York. They need blankets for children and elders year-round as well as warm clothing. It is cold winter weather through May. When it gets especially cold the water lines freeze and they cannot wash properly within their poorly insulated trailers. Waynonaha Two Worlds, a volunteer for the Seneca Indian Children Early Development program had the following comments about the container of sadness, "This makes me so sad when there is such a need here on the reservations and on other reservations. I could name you a dozen places here in Dunkirk that would have loved have these items for the kids. What a shame. I go through every box and make sure the clothes are clean and in good repair. I have washed tons of things in my own washer and mended zippers and small rips in the clothing. We can use baby clothes all sizes and children clothes up to size 12 or 14."

Seneca Indian Children Early Developmental Program
c/o Waynonaha Two Worlds
P.O. Box 142
Lily Dale, NY. 14752

Addendum Resonant Moon day 21, Blue Crystal Storm Year (Jan 30/05):
Please check back soon for the address of a tribe in South Dakota who also need these items. The Container of Sadness had been taken to the Land fill.