Category: Wendy

On our last day in the Gulf, we were finished with our work. I wanted to take Neko to the beach so she could see for herself what was going on.

We were pleasantly surprised with what we saw. Kimberly had told us that all the beach cities were working every night to get the beaches as clean as they could by morning. Everywhere we went, we saw these huge booms in the water surrounding the beach, trying to keep the oil from coming inland. We saw no signs of oil on the beach, other than this one bottle, which could have easily been coated with something else. Convoys of volunteers kept driving by, and helicopters circled on a regular basis.

I applaud the folks in charge of cleaning the beaches, as they’re doing a spectacular job. I even felt confident enough to let Neko strip down and take a quick romp in the ocean (man, it’s hard to keep that kid out of the water). We even saw little fish swimming in the surf.

I do wonder what’s going on further out in the ocean, beyond the booms, where we can no longer see. But it seems, in the meantime, Mother Nature is trying her best to take care of those problems. Crossing fingers it stays that way.

Ever since the Gulf oil spill occurred, Neko has been worried. She can’t figure out why they aren’t just plugging the leak. (Oy, trying explaining those physics to a seven-year-old when you don’t really understand them yourself). She’s really worried about the effect it will have on the ecosystem and the marine life that lives within it. One day I let her see a slide show of AP images, as I was tired of dodging the truth.

Now every day she asks if they’ve fixed it yet.

And as much as I know that everyone is doing everything they can to remedy the situation, that’s not very tangible for a little person.

So when I found out what CraftHope was doing to help gather supplies for The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, I knew that was right up our alley. Together, Neko and I could craft our own donation. But the more I read, the more I realized that what they needed was help with transportation, rather than more donations.

I thought Kimberly, who was receiving donations in her tiny house in Pensacola, might balk at the idea of strangers offering to help transport, but she didn’t. (Once I saw how many boxes she was storing in her tiny house, I understood!) So I gathered our SkyMiles, and booked a U-Haul, and we left our quick trip to Pensacola.

So far, our trip has been fantastic. Tomorrow we drive several hours to Gulfport, where we will make our delivery to IMMS and see what their organization has been doing to help. Already, I feel Neko feeling better about this situation specifically, but also about her ability to create change on a grander scale. And that, my friends, is worth every SkyMile.