Christie Family Tours Relief Site in Piscataway

First Lady Mary Pat Christie and her children toured relief sites in Piscataway on Friday afternoon, stopping at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on Rutgers University's Busch Campus, the Livingston Campus recreation center and a mobile kitchen on Hoes Lane run by the American Red Cross and a convention of Southern Baptists.

According to David Persson, Director of Missions for the New Jersey Network of Churches, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina unit is staffed by about 70-75 volunteers, set up to produce hot meals that are distributed throughout the state by the American Red Cross.

The Christie family stepped among pallets of green beans, chicken breasts and bottled water as volunteers explained the serving line, which was actively producing food as they were observing.

"This is really remarkable that you're here from North Carolina," she said to a group of volunteers.

Persson said the convention is a network of Southern Baptists from all over the nation to come together to volunteer in disaster areas. In addition to providing food, there are also "muck-out units" which help people clean their homes after a flood, shower units, washer and dryer units and chainsaw units, which help chop up fallen trees. Some also act as chaplains, he said.

All of this is done in cooperation with the American Red Cross, Persson said.

The current mass of volunteers would remain in place for a few weeks and would be replaced by a new group when they had to return to their homes, he said. The largest group of volunteers was from North Carolina, while others hailed from areas like New Jersey and Tennessee.

"(It's) a lot of cooperation and working together," he said.