Austin American-Statesman:
On Sunday, Austin gave and gave and kept on giving.
Donations for Hurricane Katrina victims streamed in all day by the carload, truckload, anything-you-can-name load, with drivers waiting patiently in a mile or more of traffic to turn in to the city's donation drop-off site at 3501 Ed Bluestein Blvd.
After adding to the clothing, bedding, diapers, toiletries and bottled water already piled up in a parking garage at the former Freescale Semiconductor Inc. research facility, some returned with more — again and again.
The story was the same downtown at the Salvation Army on East Eighth Street and at the Austin Convention Center, the main evacuee shelter, where Goodwill helped collect donations. By the end of the day, all three drop-off points were filled.
Volunteers at the three sites agreed: The outpouring from Austin that they hope will help the evacuees for months has been overwhelming.
"Whatever they said they wanted," Salvation Army facilities director Warren Stallworth said, "they got it and more besides."
But it wasn't only the donations that poured in. The volunteers — hundreds of them — did also.
...
At the Salvation Army, dozens of the city's homeless people were among the volunteers working with few breaks.
Jason Johnson, a 22-year-old who is staying at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless downtown, said while volunteering, "I've seen love, the most giving people I've seen in my life.
"Austin is wonderful," he said. "Off the chart."
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