How BNP Realtors launched the Flood Help Fund in Whatcom County
Two weeks ago, as I wrote the previous blog post, worked the remainder of the week, and headed into the weekend...
I had no idea what was about to unfold.Waking early for my Monday morning yoga class, I was dumbfounded to see that it was STILL raining.
The culverts were obviously full as I drove from Squalicum Mountain down to the Granary Building, and the rain didn't let up for one minute during the hour-long class.
Then, at about 7:20 a.m., I tried to make it to the BNP office on Squalicum Way, and that's when I finally realized the magnitude of the situation.
The road was closed where it crosses over Squalicum Creek.
I got out of my car and shot this video...
I sent it to the team and told them not to use Roeder Ave. to try to get to work.
I still had no idea what awaited just 1/2 mile further upstream, where West St. drops down from the Columbia Neighborhood and meets Squalicum Way.
I drove up and around and found West St. blocked off.
I parked and walked down to the corner, and this is what I found:
And this was merely Bellingham's situation!
I had no idea what was going on further north, especially in Sumas and Everson.
As water levels drop and clean-up and repairs begin, we are learning just how devastating and damaging the flood was for hundreds of households in Whatcom County.
Like you, I'm sure, we began looking for ways to help. We asked...Can we do something with the BNP moving truck?
Can we bring blowers, sump pumps, shovels, or other gear to where it's most needed?
If we could raise money, where and how should we donate it?
Then, brainstorming with a friend, we hatched a plan.
In this blog post, I'm going to share the story of what we did, how it went, and the responses that came in as a result.
It started with a phone call...
Two doors down from BNP headquarters is the office of Consilium Financial, where my friend Nicole Burdick works as a financial advisor.
Nicole is a community-supporting rockstar and had already been making the rounds helping people first-hand, and connecting those affected by the floods with information about other available resources like the Whatcom Resilience Fund.
On Tuesday she called me and said..."I just left Costco, and I'm going to deliver a bunch of household items in the north county. Have you thought of doing another "Fill the Truck" event for the flood victims?"
I had absolutely thought of that, as well as about 100 other ideas to try to help those in need.
But I didn't want to ask all our friends (again) to individually go to the stores and buy stuff, then truck it over to our office.
I spoke with Grace at BNP, then Grace spoke with Nicole, and the brainstorming continued to evolve and focus in on what we should do.
It seemed like money — direct cash payments — would be the most helpful thing for locals who had lost their housing and / or transportation.
We raised some money
BNP agents contribute from every closing to our collective "100 Houses" fund that results in the annual $10K donation like the one we made earlier this year to Our Treehouse.
But the agents keep up the per-closing contributions even after the 100th sale, as we make smaller donations throughout the entire year to various causes and events.
So from that we had about $2500 to start the Flood Help fund.
Nicole Burdick had donated from the start as well.
I reached out to my swimrun amigos and local business owners Trevor Swezey and Isaac Burrous, and they both donated without hesitation.
I hit up my pal Tyler Byrnes of Anchor Benefits Health & Life Insurance. He was in.
Every single team member at BNP came to the table with an additional donation:
Grace, Alana, Jessa, Jacson, Paulina, Chara, Chelsea, Kate, and Hannah all contributed more.
All tallied up, we had about $8000 in the fund, and we were ready for the next step.
We refined the gift
Once the decision was made to do direct-to-individual-households cash donations, we had to decide who would be eligible, how much to give a recipient and other terms.
We asked each other:
How are we going to find and identify the people in need?
Could we then ask questions to learn the details of their situation?
Should we have them fill out an application for us to review?
What were the high and low limits of what we could and would donate?
Ultimately, we took the Occams' Razor approach: Don't over-complicate it.
We all agreed: "Let's keep it simple, simple, simple!"
To qualify, you had to have lost your housing or transportation.
The donations would be a straight $250 cash per household.
For many, this wouldn't scratch the surface of what they would ultimately need to re-build their flood-damaged lives.
But who, in an emergency, wouldn't benefit from $250 cash to help with meals, a hotel, some bills, or just day-to-day incidentals?We also didn't want people to go through a lengthy application process.
So we made a web-page with a simple fill-in form and only a small handful of questions.
Name and contact info...Are you without your regular housing or transportation?
Please write about your situation...And upload a photo.
We made the page live and posted a blurb on Facebook at 12:53 p.m., Saturday afternoon.
The applications began arriving
In less than 5 minutes, we had our first application.
When the user had written her answers and hit "Submit" on the form, it sent Grace and I all the information in an email.
I opened that first one, and read the paragraph below...
I'll be honest, my heart about stopped.
The idea of this young family being displaced for months...
The thought of the 2 and 3-year-old girls being confused and just wanting to go home...
Then I clicked the link to the photo she had uploaded...
I screenshotted her write-up and photo, and sent them to the team.
We were all stopped in our tracks.
I re-checked my email, and there was already another...
We were less than 10 minutes into the project, the Facebook post was being shared, the word was getting out, and people in need were sharing their plight.
The mixture of emotions was overwhelming.
"We're doing a good thing,"
I knew, and I reassured myself, though I wanted to be doing so much more.
I was texting with the entire team, sharing the applications and photos.
It was sad, and humbling. Yet of course we were happy to see that it was reaching the right people and that it was working.
More stories came in...
As the applications hit our inbox, Grace was compiling them into a spreadsheet.
By the time I finished reading one, I re-checked my email and there would be another, and another, and another.
I looked again at the Facebook post... it had been shared over a dozen times, then two dozen.
At the time, early Saturday afternoon, I was at home filling our trailer with firewood, a few hundred yards from the house.
I hadn't anticipated that we could potentially run out of funds so quickly, and I wanted to be ready to take down the application and put up a "Check back later" page in its place, so I started walking toward the house.
By the time I got to the front door, one hour and 50 minutes after launching the fund, we took our 32nd application......and the $8000 fund had been completely spoken for.
"Please check back later..."
I immediately pulled the application form from the web page and replaced it with a message explaining that, due to a rapid, overwhelming response, the fund had been quickly depleted.
Grace compiled the email addresses from the applications, and we sent a message to all applicants that we could Venmo their funds if they provided their account names.
One by one, the Venmo account names came back, and Grace sent out the $250 donations.
It became obvious, by that night, that the recipients were talking to their friends and neighbors and, despite our having taken the form down, they were sharing our direct email address.
We kept getting requests and Venmo account names, even from people who hadn't completed the application.
More photos came in, directly through email instead of the online form. More stories, too.
A man named "Bryan" who had not previously filled out an application, sent his Venmo account info and multiple photos, in multiple emails.
I let him know that we were so sorry for his situation, and that the fund had been depleted but that we would let him know if we raised more funds.
Then on Monday morning, our friend Noah Mireault sent Grace a donation for the fund.
I let Bryan know, and Grace sent him the $250.Within seconds, Bryan emailed this:
The clean-up & re-building will be ongoing
There is a long, arduous path ahead for those most impacted by the flood.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Christmas is in a month.
Many of these families will be without a home, without a functioning car.
And yet there is no magical "pause button" in the sky that can stop their need to buy food, to pay bills, to give their kids a Christmas gift.
There will be insurance money for some, eventually, but not for all.
You may have already volunteered or found a way to help.
But if by chance you'd like to make a donation, and know that 100% of that money will be delivered straight to someone in need, like those who sent the stories and photos above, we've created a way to do that.
You can go to [NOW CLOSED LINK] and make a donation through BNP, of any amount you can afford.
BNP will cover any processing fees so 100% of your donation makes it to a flood victim.
Take Care of Yourself, and...
I'm a regular listener of the Freakonomics podcast.
At the end of each episode, the host Stephen Dubner says,
"Take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else, too."
I love that piece of advice.
No one can change the weather.
No one whose home or vehicle flooded caused that Atmospheric River to dump on us for 3 days.
And let's be honest, even if you're living on a hill, you're living in an area of volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires...Any one of us may need help on any given day.
If you've already given or volunteered, please accept my warmest thanks.
If you're looking for an opportunity to help, maybe this blog post provides that opportunity.
We'll make sure every penny gets right into the hands of someone who's dealing with one hell of a challenge right now.
If that happens to be you, let me know and we'll do what we can!
