As you are all aware, Hurricane Harvey tore across southeast Texas beginning August 25, and still today, on August 29, we are experiencing rain and winds. The devastating amount of rain over the past four days has submerged a large portion of the greater Houston metro area including downtown and the world-renowned medical center where I go to school. The effects of this natural disaster will be felt by millions of people for months and years to come.

While I am originally from Northeast Ohio, I moved to Houston a couple weeks before this catastrophe struck to begin graduate school at UTHealth. My heart is breaking for the people of this city I barely got to know, and watching this disaster unfurl on television and online has nearly broken my spirit. We are all inspired by different things and to different degrees, and I am absolutely itching to get out there and help rebuild the lives of my fellow Houstonians in any way I can.

I realize many of you may donate to the Red Cross or other disaster relief funds and am in no way discouraging you from doing this. My motivation in creating this account is simply to offer you a vector of direct impact. Because I live in Houston, I will be able to make donations in person to shelters and families in need. I can let you know the items most needed by shelter and can donate specific products if you so wish. I plan for 10% of the overall donation to be a monetary gift as there are always things required that I simply cannot purchase.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this even if you choose not to donate. I understand we are all in different financial positions, but if you find it within your budget to make a donation of any amount, please know that I thank you on behalf of the members of greater Houston.

A NOTE ON FreeFunder: Although you may not have heard of FreeFunder.com before, it was important to me that as much of your donations as possible go to helping restart the lives of Houstonians in need. Other crowdsourcing websites take 5-10% of each donation for their website, and in addition to the necessary 2.9% + $0.30 donation processor fee per transaction, this means a lot of money from other campaigns does not end up going toward the causes. If you choose to donate, you will be asked if you would like to donate additionally to FreeFunder; this is how they stay in business. You may choose either to donate or not, but I am grateful a website exists that allows so much of donations to go to helping the people in need. Additionally, FreeFunder will donate $20 if this page reaches 100 shares on Facebook and $50 if it reaches 500. So, if you feel it in your heart and want to help without donating, share away!