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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

If you want to volunteer to help victims of Hurricane Gustav, please see this Jackpedia page, where you can also start posting about needs for specific volunteers. If you’re available to volunteer, you can post contact info for yourself here. You can also go VolunteerMississippi.org to both volunteer and donate money or goods, as detailed in the following statement today, verbatim:

PEARL – As part of its mission as the State Office of Volunteerism, the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service staff members are working out of the Mississippi Emergency Operations Center to fill volunteerism and donations functions there. “After Hurricane Katrina, Governor Haley Barbour recognized the need to have volunteer management representation at the table, and assigned the Commission for Volunteer Service a permanent seat at the EOC. We are responsible for donations of goods and money, and for volunteerism of many types,” said Marsha Meeks Kelly, Executive Director of the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service.

To donate money or goods to hurricane relief, please visit http://www.VolunteerMississippi.org and click on “donate.” For those who cannot donate online, please call 2-1-1 (or toll free: 866-472-8265) and a representative will take your donation over the phone. Donations of used clothing will not be accepted; please donate those directly to a local charity. 211 Mississippi also gives disaster assistance to callers in need.

Volunteer Mississippi is a web-based volunteer portal where people can sign up to volunteer following a hurricane or other natural disaster, and where organizations which need volunteers can post opportunities for volunteer service. To use this resource, please visit http://www.VolunteerMississippi.org and click “Sign Up” or click to become an “Emergency Response Volunteer.” Another useful resource is the network of Volunteer Centers that cover Mississippi. To volunteer, contact the closest volunteer center by calling 1-800-VOLUNTEER (800-865-8683). Press “1” and then use the phone’s keypad to type in your five-digit zipcode; you will be transferred to the nearest Volunteer Center.

The mission of the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service is to engage and support Mississippians of all ages and backgrounds in service to their communities. As your state office of volunteerism, the MCVS oversees AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America programs, and a network of statewide Volunteer Centers. For more information on any program or service, please call 601-432-6779, toll free 1-800-393-1793, or visit http://www.MCVS.org. ###

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Medical professionals can volunteer through the Mississippi State Department of Health by clicking here to register. Also see http://www.HealthyMS.com or call MSDH 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-866-HLTHY4U (1-866-458-4948).

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.