AN URGENT PLEA: I NEED YOUR HELP

And before you get started with the comments, no, not that kind of help.

In all seriousness, I received a call this afternoon from Hartford Police Officer Mike Allen. Officer Allen lives in one of the towns in Massachusetts heavily damaged by this weeks tornadoes. He asked if he could use the blog to get a message out and I readily agreed.

Officer Allen's home was not damaged by the tornado, but many of his neighbors homes were. Mike relayed to me that there is an urgent need for cardboard boxes for people to pack the contents of their damaged homes and move the items into storage.

In that spirit I am trying to help him organize a "box drive" for people to drop off cardboard boxes to get to the people that need them. The major issue is a drop off point for people to bring the boxes to somewhere in Hartford.

I have spoke with Shirley Surgeon, also a Hartford resident, who works in the Governor's Office. Shirley is attempting to come up with a drop off point somewhere in Hartford.In the meantime, I am reaching out to my readers to see if anyone has any ideas for a drop off point to get this started quickly.

Time is of the essence as we have some decent weather for the next few days so people can pack items without them being damaged any more. Please e-mail or call me with any ideas. Thanks