Vic Vena Pharmacy helps fellow man

Olean group driving three new “homes” to hurricane victims in Louisiana, so
if you see a trailer home outside Vic Vena Pharmacy for the next few days, don’t hesitate to put socks and flashlights in it.

The trailer is one of three that Mr. Vena and a handful of volunteers plan to personally deliver, loaded with needed items, to a fellow pharmacist’s employees who lost their homes in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

“We have three camping trailers going down,” Mr. Vena said. “That’s what those folks will probably live in for the next year to 18 months, at least.”

The trailers, attained through the help of Don Laird at Lime Lake Marine and RV in Machias, will house some of the five families who currently share the same two-bedroom apartment in Louisiana.

Mr. Vena said he couldn’t get the welfare of his friend Michael Casso off his mind after hurricanes Katrina and Rita rolled through the Gulf Coast. Mr. Casso, a clinical nutritionist and intravenous chemotherapy specialist, owns two wellness store pharmacies in Metairie, La. The two men became friends after attending natural medicine conferences in Dallas, Texas and Biloxi, Miss.

He contacted Mr. Casso after Katrina hit to see if he needed any help. Mr. Casso thanked him for his generosity, but said he and his family were fine.

“I asked if there was anything we could do,” said Mr. Vena. “He said, ‘No, we can’t even get UPS.’ I kind of gave up on the idea, actually.”

During the following hurricane, Rita, Mr. Vena said he heard from news reports that Mr. Casso’s area had received a tremendous storm surge and was actually shut down.

When he finally reached Mr. Casso again, the news wasn’t so promising.

“He was OK and his family was OK, he just seemed like something was on his mind,” said Mr. Vena. “I said, ‘Well, what’s the matter?’ And he told me, ‘Vic, all these families that work for me are homeless and I can’t do anything for them.”

“I sat back and said, ‘Wow, if my employees were homeless, how could I keep their morale up?’ All they had with them was their luggage when they evacuated.”

Mr. Casso told him the families were all crammed into a tiny apartment and were unable to purchase reasonable trailer homes due to price gouging.

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