Relief Spark is a small grass-roots organization made up of volunteers that are committed to providing immediate first-response disaster relief services as well as house gutting and rebuilding services by establishing long-term relationships with families, city leaders and business owners.

Our organization was founded by Marketing Consultant Sidney Ray in Los Angeles, CA on September 1, 2005. She, along with many other volunteers she met on popular message board www.craigslist.org, got together and hosted 3 donation drives in Southern California where they collected an estimated $3 million dollars worth of donated food, water, medical - school - baby and pet supplies, clothing and etc. that was loaded onto a total of 54 donated semi and box trucks and trucked to tent cities, churches, shelters and first-response volunteers all over Louisiana and Mississippi.

A total of 814 pallets in all were shipped within 3 weeks.

The "team" of Relief Spark is YOU. Volunteers from around the world come out to lend a hand for a week, a month or a year make up the team of Relief Spark. We have one FT Volunteer Executive Director and that is our Founder Miss Sidney Ray.

Currently we are fundraising for volunteer operations, long term permanent staff, programs and first response projects. We are seeking experienced professionals to join our Executive Team as well as long term volunteers who are college graduates seeking an experience of a lifetime!

Relief Spark is a California Non-Profit Corporation and we are sponsored by ReliefNOW Network for 501 c 3 status. We are permanently located in New Orleans, LA as the rebuilding of the city is expected to take 10-15 years.

New Orleans is our base as we respond to natural disasters within the United States. In mid-January we were one of the first non-profits to respond to the ice storm that plagued Springfield, MO and surrounding towns. A small team of volunteers caravanned to the area where we assisted families in the Mt.Vernon, MO area as well as two trailer parks in north Springfield. The last few days of our trip included collaborating with Convoy of Hope and passing out groceries to families who were without a power (1 week+) in 20 degrees or below temperatures.

There is no red tape when working or volunteering with Relief Spark. We make immediate decisions based upon the information we have on hand and act....FAST! The way it should be!

To read about our startup story and Founder, please click here.