Thanks for Making this Year's Hurricane Relief Fundraiser Our
Best Ever!

Krewes Kares Hurricane Bowl Click for the Pics!

 

The Perfect End to The Knight Parade...

The venue was beautiful, the food excellent, the bars fully stocked, and the music groovin’ for the 6th Annual Krewes Kare Krash Party on February 14th.  Hundreds of people – some in krewe costume, some who were there as parade spectators - flocked into The Italian Club following the Sant’ Yago Knight Parade to party in support of Krewes Kare. The partying went on beyond the 1:00 AM official end and it seemed that many partiers still weren’t ready to go home! Thanks so much to all of you who attended and a big thanks to The Italian Club for their donation of the historic facility – we’ll be back next year in double the numbers!  We’d also like to thank Catering By The Family for the great buffet, The Breezin’ Band for rocking the 3rd floor and DJ Marvelous Marvin for his cool dance tunes on the 2nd floor.  We also need to give a big shout out to Bead Barn and Buccaneer Beads for making it easy to purchase tickets while purchasing beads. If you partied with us, tell your friends how much fun this year’s party was, and if you missed it this year, come Krash with us next year!

 

Photo Diary: On the Road with Krewes Kare to Bring Relief to Baton Rouge

See what it's like to be on the road with the relief team.  We took pictures all along the way...even when we had mechanical problems with our truck.  If there are any truck dealers who would like to donate a pickup for our next relief effort!  Call us! The Pics: Click Here to See Our Photo Diary

WE ARE LOOKING FOR DONATIONS OF MONEY VIA PAYPAL AT THIS TIME

PLEASE DONATE ANY AMOUNT YOU CAN
Please use the PayPal links below to help us continue to fund our relief effort on the Gulf Coast.  We Need Your Help!

Even though we have returned from our Gustav relief trip, we still need your help!  We have to replenish our accounts so we will be ready for the next storm.  Remember no gift is too small.  Thanks!

IF YOU JUST DONATED:
Thank You!  Your gift will go a long way and will be appreciated.

 

Areas of this page are
purposely left open in case
of breaking news.

The Krewes Kare Mission will Continue: Getting Supplies to Relief Workers in Post-Hurricane Disaster Areas

Krewes Kare is a 501(c)3 charitable organization comprised of volunteers from the 50+ krewes in the Tampa Bay area that are best known for their individual and collective participation in parades and events as well as their own charitable contributions to the community. These krewes are also members of the Inter-krewe Council (IKC), the liaison organization that provides information to all krewe members regarding parades and events and also promotes a spirit of friendship and camaraderie among members of all krewes.  More...

Krewes Kare Main Contacts:
Yvonne Painton 813-839-1302 x629
ypainton@kreweskare.org or
Visann Friscia 813.767.7607
vfriscia@kreweskare.org

Krewes Kare Officers & Directors:

Yvonne Painton, President 
Krewe of Pair O’ Dice

Lynn Barfield, Vice President 
Thieves of San Lorenzo                                                                                           
Christie Hess, Secretary
Krewe of Pair O’ Dice

Froment Gonzalez, CPA, CFO
Krewe of Hillsborough

Susan Long, Treasurer
Angel Flight Southeast

Visann Friscia, Media Relations
Krewe of Pair O’ Dice

Lou Schuyler, Public Information Officer
Krewe of Sant' Yago

Ken Donofrio, Marketing/Web Master
Krewe of Pair O’ Dice

Carol Ferguson, Director-at-Large
The Bonney-Read Krewe

Steve Plotz, Director-at-Large
Krewe of The Black Swan

Joni Cusimano, Director-at-Large
Krewe of Grace O’ Malley

Genie West, Director-at-Large
Thieves of San Lorenzo/Grace O’ Malley

Mark Bose, Director-at-Large
Rough Riders/F-Troop

Debi Tomlinson, Director-at-Large
Krewe of the Caribbean Cowboys

Charlie Macheski, Director-at-Large
Krewe of Hillsborough/Spirit of CigarCity

Brenda Ellarbee Macheski, Director-at-Large
Krewe of Hillsborough/Spirit of CigarCity

Chrisanne Schock, Director-at-Large
Krewe of Pair O’ Dice

Maria Howell, Director-at-Large
Thieves of San Lorenzo/Krewe of Shamrock

Betsy Lee, Director-at-Large
Krewe of the Caribbean Cowboys

About Angel Flight Southeast:
Delivering the Supplies

The most important part of Krewes Kare is our relationship with Angel Flight Southeast (AFSE) and the generous pilots who donate their time and fuel to make the delivery of relief supplies a reality.   You may have already heard of them.  They've made a name for themselves flying terminally ill children to out-of-state hospitals and other locations without asking the parents for a dime.  Now we've teamed up with them to make sure that relief workers in the Southeast have the tools and other supplies they need to help storm-devastated communities get back on their feet.  Our formula is simple:  relief workers in a hurricane disaster area need something?  We buy, and then AFSE flies.  Without this amazing dedication from the pilots involved, we would never be able to make such a difference. 

Read all about this great organization at their website: www.angelflightse.org.

GUSTAV: Relief Trip to Baton Rouge a Success...

After one heck of a road trip, I am very pleased to report "mission accomplished" for Krewes Kare in delivering three truckloads and a large trailer full of supplies to relief workers assisting Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana.

We spent the morning and most of the afternoon shopping for needed supplies last Wednesday, with Channel 8's Jeff Patterson and his photographer Maurice along with us to tell our story (and help shop!).  Well, as we were wrapping up, we received a call informing us that Angel Flight Pilots were grounded until Monday, 9/8, at the earliest.  This was due to all the upper level disturbances from the tail end of Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna.  We made a last minute decision to drive the supplies to Louisiana, especially after reports from Pair O' Dice member MJ Maruca who was in Baton Rouge told us of the devastation there and in towns between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  What the road trip allowed us to do was carry even more supplies, and some that were very heavy like 2 generators and 2000 lbs. of pet food for SPCA Shelters in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  We called on our resources at Tampa Police Dept. to coordinate with Mississippi State Police and Louisiana State Police to help ensure we'd be able to get through to our destination of Baton Rouge.  F-Troop Member John Crowley, a "first responder" supplied us with a GPS unit, and the Bead Barn supplied us with walkie-talkies to be able to communicate with each other in case there was no cell phone service along our way (both came in extremely handy!).  So, using Christie's truck, Debi's truck, and a truck we borrowed from Board Member Randy Conte, seven of us took off at 10:30 PM Wednesday night.  They included Krewes Kare Board Members Christie Hess, Debi Tomlinson, and myself, along with my husband Scott, Pair O' Dice members Charlie Gifford and Jessica Prentice, and a friend of John & Lisa Crowley's, Kerry DeMark (what an initiation to krewe life for her, right?).

In the Panhandle, at 5:00AM central time, the trailer blew a tire and wheel.  We had wait until 7:30 to have a tire business come to the side of road on I-10 and jack up the trailer to replace the tire and wheel.  A pain?  You bet...but it got handled without having to unload that big trailer!  Back on the road at 9::30AM Thursday, we made our way through the "parking lot" of evacuees trying to return to see if their New Orleans homes were damaged and how badly.  Relief workers kept in touch with me during our trip and along the way, made a decision to meet us at a shelter in New Orleans to spare us the hard trip to Baton Rouge.  They were able to get through to that city and those along the way, easier than we could.  At least New Orleans would be more accessible.  We finally made it to the shelter at 3:30 PM and volunteers there were elated to see all the desperately needed supplies - you can imagine their thrill that 2 generators were part of our haul.  The shelter had no power and actually, half of New Orleans was still without power. The SPCA shelter was expecting 400 animals that were to arrive beginning at 11:00 PM that had been housed in Shreveport for evacuees. We passed a lot of neighborhoods along the way where roofs were torn off of houses and buildings, walls blown down on buildings, trees ripped from their roots lying along roadways with signs.  Some of the damage we saw was due to Gustav but sadly, some was still left over from Katrina.  One of our team referred to it as a "war-torn city" and that's a good description.  We took some photos as we went and they are posted on this page. 

The road home should have been a breeze compared to the trip there but turned out to be pretty grueling - due to 2 breakdowns of one of the trucks.  Once on Friday afternoon in Marianna, FL where we ended up having to have it towed to Tallahassee and scramble to find a service place that could fix it on a Saturday morning, and then again as we were about 30 miles outside of Tallahassee Saturday afternoon.  The truck was towed back to Tallahassee and we continued back to Tampa.  Poor Randy will have to retrieve his truck sometime this week.  We arrived back home at 9:00PM Saturday.

With all that, am I glad we went?  You bet.  Krewes Kare succeeded in helping those that needed it and needed it fast.  With Hurricane Ike barrelling through the Caribbean headed for the Gulf, I'm not sure what our next call will be.  What I can say is thanks again to the road trip team and also to those who helped get us there.  A special thanks to Ken Donofrio, our webmaster for documenting our trip online during and after our trip.  Plus, I thank all of you from so many different krewes that emailed and called me offering your help with obtaining and delivering supplies when we thought we were sending them aboard Angel Flight SE Planes.  It's great to know so many of you truly care and want to be a part of this great inter-krewe organization.  We are ready and willing to help victims of Ike or whatever storm comes our way next - but I really hope we can do it via Angel Flight SE planes!  Since this is turning out to be a really nasty hurricane season, regrettably, I'm guessing you'll be hearing from me again soon asking for your help.  I just hope to have a lot more notice for shopping and Angel Flight SE for shipping!

Kindest regards,
Yvonne

Yvonne Painton, President
Krewes Kare, Inc.
P O Box 4047
Tampa, FL 33677
813.839.1302 ext 629

Official Press Release for this Effort
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