{"id":53217,"date":"2020-06-20T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-nation-nonprofit-durango-church-partner-on-supply-drive\/"},"modified":"2020-06-20T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:46:11","slug":"navajo-nation-nonprofit-durango-church-partner-on-supply-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-nation-nonprofit-durango-church-partner-on-supply-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Navajo Nation nonprofit, Durango church partner on supply drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kathleen
Kathleen Devine, left, and Shanan Orndorff transfer donated supplies during a Navajo Nation supply drive Saturday, organized by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Durango and Toyei Industries from the Navajo Nation.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A stream of vehicles rolled into the Unitarian Universalist Church in Durango on Saturday, loaded with supplies for Navajo and Hopi tribal members in need.<\/p>\n

The church partnered with Toyei Industries Inc., a Navajo Nation nonprofit, to coordinate the supply drive. The nation, which spans 27,000 square miles, has fought one of the most severe COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States with limited resources and access to health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Durango is an extraordinarily generous community \u2013 as you can see by all the people coming out,\u201d said Bonnie Miller, a coordinator for the church\u2019s social justice efforts, referring to the line of vehicles waiting to drop off goods.<\/p>\n

\"Marsha
Marsha Porter-Norton helps transfer donated supplies during a Navajo Nation supply drive Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Durango. The supplies will go to Navajo tribal members who are struggling to access resources because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Drivers arrived at the church parking lot with bags of canned and fresh food, bottled water, cleaning supplies, face masks and other supplies bagged and ready to grab in their trunks and backseats. Volunteers wearing masks and gloves transferred the donations to a storage room. Within the first hour, the room had filled substantially.<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s supply drive began after Marsha Porter-Norton, a volunteer who is running for La Plata County commissioner, connected them with Toyei Industries. Toyei is a Navajo Nation entity established in 1976 that provides employment and training services for disabled Navajo tribal members.<\/p>\n

Two people from Toyei were coming to Durango on a weekly basis to gather supplies, particularly for Gallup, New Mexico, and Chinle, Arizona, where the outbreaks have been severe, Miller said.<\/p>\n

As the nation has responded with shutdown orders and other restrictions, resource access has been one challenge for tribal members, particularly elders. In some cases, people can\u2019t leave their home to get food and supplies because of the pandemic or other causes. A third do not have running water or electricity, according to news reports.<\/p>\n

\"A
A volunteer looks over the amount of supplies gathered in the first hour of the Navajo Nation supply drive at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Durango on Saturday.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Din\u00e9 Bik\u00e9yah, or Navajoland, is larger than 10 of the 50 states in America, but it has only about 13 grocery stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are having a hard time getting stuff at City Market and Albertsons, you can imagine what it\u2019s like to drive 200 miles to a very small grocery store,\u201d Porter-Norton said.<\/p>\n

The church volunteers said they wanted to follow Toyei Industries\u2019 lead to provide help. While they don\u2019t have a specific plan for another drive, they are open to further action. On Sunday, they collected donations for the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the gift is for the giver to know that you helped to make a difference,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unitarian Universalist Church receives loads of donations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2281,685,950,28,1655,29,407],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-church-and-state-relations","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-navajo-nation","tag-newsletter","tag-religion-and-belief"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53217"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}