Their experience last week at Westbrook’s emergency shelter has inspired a mother and daughter to help keep boredom at bay for future evacuees.
Escaping the Patriot’s Day storm to the safety of the shelter, set up at the Westbrook High School gym, a 10-year-old Congin School student, Taylor Mary Driscoll, and her mom, Ellen Driscoll, recognized a need for things at shelters to occupy people. So, Taylor is donating birthday gifts from her party Saturday, April 21, to the city to be used at the emergency shelter.
The Driscolls plan to deliver crates of books, cards and games to the city for its shelter at the end of this week. The gifts will be stored with the emergency shelter cots.
Ellen Driscoll praised the shelter volunteers. “They were fabulous. They made us as comfortable as possible,” Driscoll said.
But, Driscoll, who had packed books in her family’s emergency kit, said many others driven to shelters by the widespread power outage weren’t so well prepared.
“A lot of people were stunned. They had nothing but the clothes they came in with,” she said.
Frank Driscoll said Wednesday his family went to the shelter after their home lost power. He said his younger daughter, Jenna, 9, has asthma and she might have needed power for a breathing apparatus.
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