Photo by my cousin David Strahan in Pleasant Grove, Alabama.
I’m Brittley Jarrell, Chief Strategy Officer at CORE. It’s a very fancy title that just means that I steer the ship amidst all the ideas, creativity and chaos here at CORE. I love what I do and the people with whom I work. I love it so much that I left my beautiful home state of Alabama to come back to New York to be here.
That is why I have rarely been more heartbroken then to see the place I love completely destroyed by the tornadoes last week. And while all of my family and friends survived, many had their homes and businesses damaged and have been left without electricity, food, water and other basic necessities.
Alabama, for all of its trials and tribulations, is a remarkable place. It doesn’t have skyscrapers or zillion dollar penthouses. But it does have indescribable natural beauty, the most glorious skies you will ever see and a heart and pride that shakes the earth any given Saturday during football season when two of the biggest cities in the state are merely football stadiums in two sleepy college towns. It’s a place where people will feed their neighbor before feeding themselves. Where family, friends and faith means more than money or status. And on that alone it will survive and rebuild.
But right now it has nothing. Over 250 people have died. Entire cities have been eliminated. People have lost absolutely everything they own. And what is needed most right now are the basics – water, food and shelter. By texting “REDCROSS” to 90999, you can donate $10 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to help with this.
They deal with hundreds of tornadoes a year, but nothing like this. This is truly catastrophic in every sense of the word.
So this is easy. One text message. $10 dollars. Turn heartbreak into help.
Thank you and to those at home – Roll Tide!