Duanesburg fundraiser to help families hit by flooding

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lamendola

A fundraiser will be held Saturday at the Indian Lookout Country Club to help 10 families who lost their possessions when flood waters ravaged the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys two months ago.

The event will run from noon to 11 p.m. Admission is $5 per person and free for children younger than 12.

The fundraiser will feature live entertainment, a haunted hayride, haunted houses, a hay maze, vendors offering food and crafts and raffles with items donated by local retailers.

Nancy McKeown, one of the organizers, said 100 percent of the fundraiser’s proceeds will go to aid 10 families totaling about 30 people.

“We are trying to get these families enough money so they can replace some of their personal items — underwear, shoes, socks, boots, things that were lost that they do not have right now. We also want to get them some food and give them enough to put toward an apartment so they have a place they can call home for the holidays,” she said.

All of the families rented apartments in the areas hard hit by flooding. While most homeowners were able to obtain recovery assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, through insurance or from other sources, McKeown said renters received nothing.

“They lost their possessions in the flooding and their places to live because the houses they were living in were condemned,” she said. “These are the people who slipped through the cracks.”

McKeown said she would not identify the families but said several will attend the fundraiser. She told the story of one family from Rotterdam Junction, a man and woman with two children and a third on the way. “They got hit pretty hard. They lost everything they got for the baby. It is horrible,” she said. “On top of this, she lost her job. She worked for the state.”