How to Help Fire Victims

Here are some places collecting donations or doing fundraisers to help victims of the recent wildfires.  The kind of in-kind donations accepted are generally bottled water, non-perishable food, baby wipes, diapers, formula, personal hygiene items, pet food, soap, toothpaste/brushes, bedding (sheets, pillows), clothing, work gloves, trash bags.  Some places below are only accepting monetary donations.


Belton:

• Bell Baptist Association building at UMHB, 1125 College Street.  Accepting in kind donations  9 a.m. to noon, Friday Sept 9 .
• Schoepf's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, 702 E. Central Ave., Belton;  Accepting in-kind donations 7 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 10. 
• Dead Fish Grill, 2207 Lake Rd, Belton, TX.  Accepting in-kind donations.  People who donate will receive a coupon for a free chips and salsa appetizer.   For more info call call 254-939-5771 or visit http://www.deadfishgrill.com/.

Copperas Cove:

• Contact Stacy 803-447-7710

Fort Hood: ‎

• Contact Beth 706-766-5780

Harker Heights:

• Ladies' Workout Express at 480 E. FM 2410 Ste. 100. Accepting toiletries, clothing (all sizes) can goods, children books and children toys.  254-680-5391

Killeen:

• Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at 2300 S. Clear Creek Suite 101.  Accepting in kind donations. 
• Grace Christian Center, 1401 E. Elms Road, Killeen;  Accepting in kind donations. Monday and Tuesday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday; 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 15.

Temple:

• United Way of Central Texas at 18 S. Main, Temple, TX 76501 254-778-8616.  Accepting cash or check donations.

VARIOUS AREAS or ONLINE: 

• The Red Cross of Central Texas is accepting monetary donations and lists some other places to drop off in-kind donations of food and clothing.
• H-E-B customers can donate $1, $3 or $5 at checkout; company donating $50,000. 
• Pizza Huts owned and operated by RMC:  On September 15 for all dine-in, carryout and delivery orders on this day, 10 percent of sales will go to benefit the Bastrop Fire Relief Efforts to assist the victims of the impacted communities.

If you know of any other places in Waco and surrounding areas collecting donations for fire victims, please leave info in a comment below...or better yet, let the sites below (where I got my info) know so that it will reach a broader audience.

KCENTV :: iSurfTemple :: KDHNews

Waco Gardening Tips: SEPTEMBER

This month's planting tips should be taken with a grain of salt because I don't know how this heat wave affects things.  I think planting indoors would be suggested on everything but root plants (carrots, onions, etc.). 

• This is the month to transplant iris and calla lily.  There's a great video on how to divide and transplant iris here.  (But if they don't absolutely need deviding, possibly wait until next year.)
• Plant carrots and mustard by the first week of September, and kale before October 1 (assuming the first frost will still be coming at the regular time).
  
• Plant broccoli and cauliflower seeds now.  Since we're expecting more heat you might want to start these indoors.
  
• Plant bulbing onions, bunching onions,  leeks, and shallots this month (cut off date for these is October 1).   Shallots sets are planted, not seeds.  The rest  should always be direct seeded into the garden, which is unfortunate considering this heat. 
• Find out what other vegetables and herbs you can plant this month HERE.  But I'd hold off on anything that can still be planted next month, unless you want to seed indoors.   
• Providing some shade for your plants may help.  Dorris at FlipFlopGardener suggests plant umbrellas (and gives some nifty instructions on how to set them up.   I've used plastic flowers to shade my read seedlings until they were strong enough to grow without shade, and it worked well. 

I find most of my info about when to plant in the book Month to Month Gardening in Texas and at the Mother Earth News Website.