Monroe Donates Water to Help Homeless

The mercury has been near 100 degrees almost every day this summer. So many of you will reach for water to quench your thirst, but that's not so easy for the homeless. Monroe employees tried to change that today by donating some bottled water. It’s been called the world's most precious resource and the most basic need for any person to survive, but for the homeless in Monroe water isn't such a clear picture. "A lot of people go on without the basic things they need such as water,” said Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo. Monday, Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo put in the sweat and labor to stack bottles of water donated by city employees. "Well we started off in our coats, but we had to get out of our coats pretty quickly,” said Mayo. The city handed the water over to Volunteers of America. They will then give it to the homeless who spend nearly every hour -- out in the heat. "She will actually make contact with them and she will have water in her trunk of her car that she will distribute,” said Judith Bell of Volunteers of America. In one week Volunteers of America Regional Vice President Judith Bell says Monroe employees raised about seven thousand bottles of water for the homeless community. Handing out water is just one thing Volunteers of America does to help the community from drying up and they say homelessness is a bigger problem here than you think. "We know that on any given night there's probably about 50-60 individuals who are not in our shelters that are really on the streets,” said Bell. Bell says the stacks of water cases crowding her room is a good problem to have......quenching the thirst of the homeless one bottle at a time. Volunteers of America need the community to help the homeless. They need new volunteers and toiletry supplies to hand out. If you would like to help, call Volunteers of America: 318-322-2272