This Saturday at 9am, Buffalonians willing to spend their Saturday helping our friends in South Buffalo relieve themselves of over 6 feet of snow are encouraged to gather at the Old First Ward Community Center (62 Republic Street) where the coffee will be hot, Mazurek’s Donuts will be plentiful, and the city of good neighbor spirit will be in full effect. The goal? Dig out South Buffalo and help those in need that are buried in the south towns. Don’t you worry South Buffalo, the Shovel Brigade Mob of hundreds is on the way with snowblowers, salt, food, warmth, coffee, shovels, smiles and most importantly hope.

Volunteers are needed to clear sidewalks and driveways, deliver bagged lunches to “Meals on Wheels” clients who haven’t had a meal since Tuesday, and simply provide moral support. The minds behind this brilliant effort are Susan Cholewa, Megan Callahan, Laura Kelly, Peggy Overdorf, and Kate Heidinger just to name a few. The shovel mob will congregate at the community center, become one, and develop a strategy to dig out as much of South Buffalo as quickly as possible. This meeting will cover travel logistics and areas of concentration in South Buffalo. People with large vans are needed desperately as they are seeking shovelers and drivers to get teams out to the disaster zone and and back. The City of Buffalo has approved this effort and encourages civilians to band as one and dig out our neighbors in need.

For anyone in South Buffalo in need of help, please call 311 to share your address. For citizens in Lackawanna, West Seneca, Lancaster and other affected areas, please use the survey monkey link to share your information so that groups of people can be organized to come and help.

A Facebook event with more information can be found here.