Sikh Temple Members Turn Out To Volunteer For Sandy Relief
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The aftermath of Superstorm Sandy has mobilized New Yorkers like never before.
WCBS 880 reporter Marla Diamond visited a shelter in Belle Harbor, Queens, where hot meals were delivered through the kindness of strangers.
WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reports
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Arvinder Singh of Glen Cove and children from the Sikh gurdwara there were handing out hot meals at St. Francis de Sales Church, 129-16 Rockaway Beach Blvd.
"We want to show that we care and we really belong here and we want to be here, and we want to be part of this community too," Singh said.
Singh spoke about the prejudice and hatred he sometimes endures, but he harbored no anger.
"But what matters is this -- you know what? People are showing here. That community cares, and you know people are willing to help ," he said. "There are millions of us, we'll feel that we are just doing very little, people are doing much more. And we are asking everybody what else can we do? We would like to do more."
United Sikhs said in a news release that in the week after Sandy, they prepared more than 9,000 meals at 29 shelters. Sikh community members also delivered clothes, blankets, diapers, towels and other supplies to shelters in New York and New Jersey.
"United Sikhs shall always continue to carry the torch of service that we have been taught by our Gurus. We will be the ones who enter the areas most devastated and the locales most ravished so we can provide emergency relief to the vulnerable and affected because of the support of our community," United Sikhs National Director Gurvinder Singh said in a news release. "This is the time we answer the clarion call to ensure that those who have lost so much have an opportunity to recover."
