MUKILTEO — Inside a 4,000-square-foot warehouse just off the Mukilteo Speedway, volunteers have been busy packing boxes filled with food, medical and other supplies destined for Samoa and American Samoa.
A Sept. 29 earthquake and tsunami killed dozens of people and flattened coastal villages in the South Pacific islands.
Eagles Nest Foundation, a nonprofit group that responds to victims of natural disasters, is helping ease the country’s burden.
“What we do is collect donated medical supplies from hospitals, medical distributors, clinics and individuals and bring them into the warehouse,” said volunteer Paul Tinning, 74, of Mill Creek.
Eagles Nest co-founder Jeanne Kimn, who quit her nursing job to run the organization full-time, said she and her husband, Dayoung, were inspired to start the organization while doing missionary work in Asian countries and other developing areas.
“As we worked there, we saw the need,” she said.
They started slowly in 2003, searching for supplies while living in their former Everett home.
Two years later, they opened the organization’s first warehouse in Mukilteo, filling a need left after the closure of a Lynnwood warehouse owned by Christian relief agency World Concern.
Kimn said foundation volunteers collect donations from Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, among others. Shipments leave the ports of Seattle or Tacoma bound for nongovernmental organizations with access to medical facilities around the world. Donations have gone to Africa, Indonesia and Afghanistan.
“We send wherever there is a need, regardless of their religion or political stance,” she said
For help with the Samoa donations, the Kimns turned to Pana Mamea, pastor of the Hilltop Christian Center in Tacoma, who is in close contact with people in American Samoa and Samoa.
Mamea said he learned last week that one of the Eagles Nest shipping containers arrived at its destination in American Samoa.
“It’s good to know it’s in their hands,” he said.
For more information about Eagles Nest Foundation, call 425-493-1340 or send an e-mail to eaglesnest.foundation@gmail.com.
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429, ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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