Help your neighbors during heat wave

I am proud to be an American and especially an Iowan.

Iowa's people step up when there's a crisis or people in need. People in our city are in need right now with this summer heat wave. Many of us sit in our air-conditioned homes and offices and lament this heat and having to go out in this heat to our air-conditioned cars.

What of the people who have no air-conditioning at all? Entire families who live in sweltering homes and are forced to sit outside in heat indexes of 106 because it is actually cooler outside than inside.

So, please call homeless shelters, food banks and emergency agencies to see if you can donate a fan or a small air-conditioner to someone - Google to get phone numbers of these agencies. Take cases of really cold bottled water around to disadvantaged areas and pass them out to people sitting outside. Buy large packs of Popsicles and go by the splash-pads in parks and hand them out to the large number of kids trying to stay cool and can't afford the price of swimming pools. Buy a disadvantaged family a season swim pass so they can go there to stay cool. Please step up again in some way to help your neighbor.

Judy Gustafson

Cedar Rapids