While Valley residents have been generous in their donations, the much needed supplies are stuck in storage for the time being.
19-year-old Kayla Christiansen has been on the phone since Friday afternoon desperately trying to raise $2,500.00.
That's the amount a Visalia transportation broker is now saying it will cost to ship supplies to Joplin Missouri. A week and a half ago the company told Christiansen they'd do it for free.
Kayla Christiansen says the broker told her, "He could step up with a truck for me and do all this stuff for em and he asked me what I needed. I asked him what I needed to do and he said fill up a 48 foot truck and that's kind of where we left it."
The Visalia trucking broker told Kayla he had failed to raise the funds to take the load... so she would have to come up with $2,500.00. So Kayla got busy getting the word out in Fresno, Clovis, and Tulare County.
"In just a week and a half people in the Valley have donated all kinds of things... and when you have nothing like the people of Joplin... every little bit makes a huge difference."
A truck was supposed to show up at First American Title in Northwest Fresno Monday morning to take the load to Joplin. Kayla is still hopeful a truck will leave at noon Tuesday.
Kayla said, "We have a good community in Fresno County and the area around us are very generous.... and even though times are tough, people will do what they can to help."
Kayla says she'll be by the phone all night if she has to... because she says that 48 foot truck needs to be on the road to Joplin Missouri as soon as possible.
If you can help donate to the cost of the shipping ($2500), you can call Kayla on her cell phone at 559-301-0976.
