Help for a Friend in Gerritsen Beach

Hello friends and family. Hurricane Sandy has impacted all of us in one way or another. Unfortunately, for many residents of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, the impact was severe and the road to recovery will be a long and difficult one. At the core of this very tight knit community is a woman well known to all named Kathy Burke. Kathy's apartment, where she lived with her two daughters, was totally flooded from top to bottom by Sandy.  

The recently finished apartment and all of Kathy and her daughters' possessions were completely ruined, from old photo albums and cherished mementos to brand new furniture that was literally less than one week old. 

In addition to losing her apartment and lifetime's worth of possessions, Kathy's car was also destroyed.  She can't even begin to replace anything yet, as the Sheepshead Bay Road restaurant where she's worked for several years sustained such severe damages during the storm that it may not be reopening at all and therefore she has no job to return to.

Kathy and her daughters are now living with Kathy's son and his family upstairs from her wrecked apartment. Like all of the residents of Gerritsen Beach, they are currently without electricity, heat, or hot water and will continue to live that way because restoration cannot occur until every single home in the entire neighborhood is inspected by licensed electricians. 

I know so many have lost so much in the aftermath of Sandy, but I am asking you to donate just a little bit more to help a woman who is the very heart and soul of Gerritsen Beach, so that she may begin her own road to recovery.