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To Coast Area
Twenty-two boxes of clothing and an undetermined amount of money has been donated to the Gulf Coast by a smll Michigan community with a population of only 300.
Kent City is a suburb of Grand Rapids and is the home town of Mrs. Pat Milligan, who now resides in Biloxi. Following the hurricane on Aug. 17,. Mrs. Milligan wrote her parents about the inconceivable damage suffered on the Coast. She described the heartbreak of a couple she had encountered right after the storm. They were looking for their children. She told of an old man sitting on the seawall in Biloxi who expressed to Mrs. Milligan a des-parate hopelessness.
This letter was given by her parents to the local paper and was picked up from there by news papers in neighboring towns.
As a result, people in Kent began collecting items to send
here. The town of Sparta, not much larger than Kent, also took Kent's cause as its own and contributed.
Boxes of clothing began appearing on the doorstep of Mrs. Milligan's mother if she was not at home to accept them. A ten-year-old girl went around the neighborhood collecting the necessary money to pay for shipping the goods. The clothing and money was sent withi* a week of the storm and arrived in Biloxi only last week.
Mrs. Milligan said Kent has been frequently walloped by tornadoes and every year faces uncounted tornado warnings. These people know what disaster means and wanted to help, she said.
The money was given to the Rev. Patrick Eagan of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Biloxi. The clothes have been taken by Mrs. Milligan to the Biloxi Community Center.


Hurricane Camille Camille-Aftermath-Media (041)
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