Shari's employees find a way to help those hurt by the hurricane

Published 12:03 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast it left death and destruction in its wake, but it inspired a wave of compassion in Bonney Lake.

Candy Wells, manager of Shari's Restaurant, was driving to work Thursday morning listening to a news report of people's suffering and the deteriorating conditions in New Orleans, and she knew it was time to act in some way.

"I called Raquel (Baker) and woke her up," Wells said. "I asked her what can we do? We have to do something."

Baker, who has worked as a waitress for the past year at Shari's, called Amber Callihoo, who has worked at Shari's about 18 months, and Rebecca Davis, another employee of about 18 months.

What Baker, Callihoo, Davis and Wells came up with was a water drive for the New Orleans' evacuees.

The four women started at 10 a.m. and less than four hours later they had collected more than 130 gallons of water in bottles and jugs.

"We have wonderful customers and people in Bonney Lake," Callihoo said. "We just asked people and they came with water."

Baker said during the morning she asked each customer if they wanted to donate $1 to the cause.

"Not a single person turned me down," Baker said. "Candy really inspires us. We've always tried to work together. Anything that touches our hearts."

The four women have worked together before, raising money for the fight against breast cancer and other causes. But the New Orleans disaster brought them together in a special way.

"We are collecting as much water as possible and Shari's is very supportive," Wells said. "I called my husband and told him you're going to spend a lot of money this weekend. He just said great, go ahead."

Wells said they intend to collect the water and get a trucking company to drive it to New Orleans or Houston where many of the evacuees have landed, depending on the need.

"I know we will have people who will take care of that," Wells said. "I just look at what I have and decided I had to do something. Raquel, Amber and Rebecca and the employees all started working to help."

Contributions for the water drive can be dropped off at Shari's, 20805 state Route 410.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.