Living Well Church of the Nazarene, located at 3631 Evelyn Drive in Salem, and Northwest Hardware, located at 2913 W. Main St., also in Salem, collected many different supplies including food, water, diapers and clothes for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Pastor Steve Parker and church volunteers arrived in New York on Saturday, Nov. 3, and 36 hours later, according to Parker, they were able to deliver the supplies to the victims of Sandy.

Parker says the supplies were delivered to a church in Far Rockaway on Staten Island in NY; the church acted as a distribution center, despite the challenge of working to restore power to the building.

“The Living Well team linked with a group of volunteers from all over Virginia and fed 2,000 people in one day on the street with this Mobil (sic) Kitchen,” Parker said in an email.

Helping to feed folks affected by the storm was just one task the Living Well volunteers took on during their trip. They also helped to clean up a home damaged by the flooding:

“The lady’s name was Margaret,” Pastor Parker said in an email. Margaret is pictured in the last photo of the slide show, in the center. “She was separated from her teenage son during the storm. She had gone to take the family car to higher ground, and the son refused to leave their home. Before she could get back she got a text from her son that the water was up to his neck and he was trying to get out. She never heard from him again for 24 hours when she found him in a neighbor’s apartment. She was hospitalized with pneumonia from her exposure and being wet for those 24 hours frantically searching for her son.

“We were privileged to clean her home out, shovel the sand out, and leave her a very happy mother with hope of rebuilding her life. The hospital she works at was damaged and she is without employment till it can reopen (three to six months).

“Thanks West Salem friends and neighbors, Northwest Hardware and Living Well Church,” Parker says. “You truly made a difference.”

For more information, call the church at 540-389-1778.