Robert Barker/University Photography

The U-Haul is loaded with supplies for New York City.

Once a month a Swarthout bus filled with faculty, staff, retirees and their families heads to New York City, where passengers can enjoy a day of shopping, sightseeing and other activities.

This past weekend, Cornell community members loaded up the bus once again -- but this time its cargo bins were filled with blankets, towels, coats, jackets, toiletries, bottled water, snacks and winter gear for those who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The Cornell Recreation Connection, which coordinates the New York City day trips, came up with the idea to use this month's trip for relief donations and set up a truck on central campus for donation drop-offs. Once word went out, the Cornell and Ithaca communities responded immediately, filling the truck's 400 cubic feet of space by late Friday afternoon and bringing additional items to the bus before dawn on Saturday morning. In addition to individual donations, several departments contributed, including 10 cases of water each from the Cornell Store and Building Care; several cases of snack food from Cornell Dining; and four cases of fleece blankets from the Division of Alumni Affairs and Development.

Volunteers -- including individuals not going to New York -- helped transfer goods from the truck to the bus, while others helped unload the bus once it reached the Bowery Mission, which would coordinate the distribution of the donations.

"Within a matter of moments, an army of people started to pour out of the mission. Before long there was a human conveyor belt of people unloading the contents of the bus," said Tom Primerano, lead Help Desk consultant for Johnson School Technology Services and coordinator of the truck collections, in thanking the volunteers and donors. "[The New York City recipients] were extremely grateful and thankful for the donations that we delivered. ... That first few minutes in Manhattan made the whole day worthwhile."