VFW collects for Harvey relief

Sidney's VFW Post 610's Hurricane Harvey relief effort last week resulted in more than 35,000 pounds worth of supplies being collected.

"It was a great effort," Cmdr. Stephanie Dadgostar said. "There were people from all different walks of life. We had veterans out there. We had school kids out there. We had all kinds of people helping out. It was a pretty amazing community effort."

From Tuesday through Thursday evenings, VFW volunteers at Cheyenne County Fairgrounds, with a truck donated by Adams Trucking, collected needed supplies for hurricane victims.

People brought not only cases of bottled water, but many other goods.

"We had lots of toiletries. Houston will have some very clean teeth and clean bodies thanks to Sidney, Nebraska," Dadgostar said. "We collected lots of diapers, formula. We had a whole palette of dog food and cleaning supplies."

Dadgostar said she was impressed with the turnout.

"We had a lot of the surrounding communities come down," she said. "We had people from Ft. Morgan and Bridgeport, Sterling. Kind of everyone."

By the time the truck was closed, it was completely full, Dadgostar said.

More people than could be counted contributed to the effort.

"I had well over 300 people sign the roster that donated and those were just individual people," Dadgostar said. "They could have been representing the entire school district (for example), coming to donate."

The effort was aided by many volunteers, Dadgostar said.

"We had a lot," she said. "Over the course of three days we had well over 50 volunteers."

Dadgostar hopes VFW Post 610 will continue such charitable efforts into the future, including possibly lending help to Hurricane Irma victims.

"We're just going to have to wait and see what's needed," she said. "If we're called on to help, we'll definitely help."