In May of 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Navajo Nation was impacted by the highest rate of coronavirus cases per capita. Knowing the community was already lacking access to water, Michelle Barney, at Foundation for Blind Children, knew that she wanted to be able to help in some way. This led to a partnership between Foundation for Blind Children and One Distribution Cargo & Freight Co.
Ms. Barney works in the Media Center as a Braille Technician in Phoenix, Arizona. When she reached out to her colleagues and expressed her idea for a water drive, there was no hesitation from Ms. Barney’s team, and they all took to email and social media to spread awareness about the water drive to all their employees and friends. Ms. Barney decided on a plan to collect water through the month of June, load up as much donated water that would fit in a rental car, and drive 5 hours with her colleague, Amanda McCoy, to deliver it to Window Rock, AZ, within the Navajo Nation.
“I grew up in a small community of Navajo Nation, called Mexican Springs,” Ms. Barney said. “Where we lived at, we would have to travel 30-40 minutes to the well to collect our water in barrels. That would be the same well water that the livestock would drink water from. When you take it home you are still sharing the water with your own livestock. There are people out there still doing that. Knowing my experience living in it, when I saw the number of cases getting higher I knew I had to do something. I know the CDC guidelines are keeping your hands clean, social distancing, but it’s impossible out there. You will live in a two-bedroom house with 6 or more people. It’s hard to stay distanced in a community like that. We collect the water, take it home, and you would share the same wash pan with everyone. The same wash pan to wash your hair is the same wash pan everyone washes their hands in. It’s not like having running water through a faucet or access to clean water that you can just drink."
Ms. Barney got in touch with the Justice of Courts of Window Rock, and found out that they had already set up an official humanitarian donation program with the Navajo Nation, and needed donations of water.
As more employees shared the information through email and social media and a community coming together to help, cases of bottled water on pallets filled their storage room at work. While Ms. Barney was continuing to accept donations, she realized the donations were more than what one carload could handle. Not wanting to deprive the Navajo Nation of resources willing to be donated from the Phoenix community, she was connected to One Distribution through a colleague, Melanie Audet. After an introduction and Zoom meeting, the logistics and planning for the water delivery were set, and more water donations continued to come in, completely filling up the available space.
Amongst the bottled water, donors also donated toilet paper, dog food, cat food, non-perishable food, sponges, bleach, dish soap, dish towels, hand sanitizer, and face masks.
By 5:00am on Friday, July 11th, Ms. Barney, Ms. McCoy, and team members at One Distribution were on their way to Window Rock, AZ in one 15-passenger van, one truckload of water, and other essential goods. During the 6-hour drive through the desert mountains and winding roads of northern Arizona, the team approached Window Rock, AZ, and turned on the local radio.
“Just driving through Window Rock, we put on KTNN and listened to the community speaking in Navajo,” Ms. Barney said. “A lot of it was talking about needing donations, but a lot of people were on just asking for help. It kept going from person to person and hearing all those people asking for donations. It was a good moment though because I thought, ‘Hey you guys, we’re coming. We have water and supplies for you.’”
When the team reached the donation center for the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, AZ, they were warmly greeted by the National Guard and FEMA staff receiving all donations from donors across the state. With the teamwork of One Distribution members and the National Guard, all of the water and supplies were unloaded into the warehouse to be distributed to the Navajo Nation in need.
Through the support of the staff at Foundation for Blind Children, Royal Rose Logistics, Kotewa family, Casey Schaeffel, Sarah Marsh, and the Phoenix community, One Distribution was able to load up 10 pallets of essential goods including 250+ cases of bottled water weighing approximately 10,000+ lbs, and deliver it to a community in need.
Ms. Barney expressed her gratefulness to the community members who actively came together to support each other. “Everybody pitched in, there was no second thought of saying no. Everyone just went forward. We didn’t step back and kept going and it fell in place. We didn’t have any setbacks. We all jumped in and it just happened. The fact that One Distribution just wanted to help, and did more than what we asked for, meant so much.”
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