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Donations made to this button will be contributed to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund, which is funding the relief for the Haiti Earthquake

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The last week has been a very difficult one for the people of Haiti, and the American Red Cross has been working very hard to raise and deliver the resources necessary to assist the recovery.

In all, the American people and the American Red Cross have contributed more than $103 million to the effort.  The Tri-County Red Cross has raised more than $300,000 of that response thanks to the generosity of local businesses, churches, schools and families. 

Among those are the Wakefern Food Corporation (ShopRite stores), which has donated $250,000 to the effort.  Also many schools -- including Bayberry Elementary School, Roselle High School, Elizabeth High School, Rahway High School, Plainfield's public schools, and far more than I can mention - have been very generous in raising funds.  Add on to that the many individuals who donated online at http://www.tricountyredcross.org and this has been an amazing response from our local communities.

If your business or organization would like to help raise funds for the American Red Cross, you can call Nathan Rudy or Corinna Krauskopf at (908) 756-6414, or e-mail us at info@tricountyredcross.org.    We have a number of ways to work with your customer base to raise funds.

The chapter has also been supporting the repatriation of American citizens flown back to McGuire Air Force Base.  The Burlington County Red Cross has taken the lead and done an amazing job, and other state chapters volunteers and staff and donors have been assisting.

The funds raised above have supported the following American Red Cross actions in Haiti:

• A Red Cross field hospital has been set up at Hopital Universitaire d'Haiti in downtown Port-au-Prince, and surgeries began last night on people injured in the earthquake.  Three Red Cross Basic Healthcare Emergency Response Units (ERU) will be on the ground to provide care and triage in Port-au-Prince, and an additional ERU is being deployed.  Combined the Red Cross will be able to care for a half million people.
• Three Water and Sanitation ERUs are now on the ground setting up equipment and initial water distributions have begun.  Once at full capacity, these ERUs will provide clean water for up to 50,000 people each day.
• The American Red Cross released all of its sheltering and feeding supplies from its Panama storage supply to support 10,000 families.
• The American Red Cross provided blood and blood products to the U.S. Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.  Requested by the U.S. Navy, the blood was shipped to their facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in support of medical evacuees from Haiti. In addition, the American Red Cross has sent a shipment of blood products to the UN Mission in Haiti.

We will continue to update our website at http://www.tricountyredcross.org with more information as it becomes available.  You may also call us at (908) 756-6414 if you have questions.

Every year the Tri-County Red Cross gives out more than a thousand toys to local children for the holidays, signing up more than 200 families who need just a little leg up to make the winter holidays just a little better. Today we are doing the final preparations, and tomorrow we will pass out the presents.

It sounds like a small thing to just pass out toys, but it's amazing how many people are behind the effort to make it happen. Here are just some pictures of people who made this happen in 2009, and more will be coming.

One of our biggest benefactors is Borders in Watchung, and their customers. Last year Dot Smith called us up out of the blue and offered to make us the beneficiary of their holiday toy drive. We were overwhelmed by what we received, and this year there is even more! So far we have received more than 20 boxes of stuffed animals, toys and books. Here's a picture of Elsa Mejia, Denise Neto and disaster volunteer Terri Esposito organizing just a few of the books for kids that Borders' customers bought.

Every time you hear about how kids these days just don't care like they used to, check out these kids who stood up to help those who are a little less fortunate. Kids from the Bayberry Elementary School collected toys for the annual Tri-County Red Cross Toy Drive 2009. Pictured is Ms. Mary Nunn, principal of the school.

We can't leave out the kids at Wardlaw Hartridge, either, who were so enthusiastic that they had to create an old-fashioned bucket brigade to get all the toys from the school to our disaster response van. Check out their enthusiasm -- partly for the good feelings, and partly because it was really, really cold!

The officers of the Navy Recruiting Station in Plainfield also collected food and clothing for the effort.  Here's a pic of all the stuff they gave!

This is only a small sampling of the people and organizations who have supported the holiday toy drive and the disaster relief services of the American Red Cross' Tri-County Chapter.  We cannot support our community without these donors, volunteers, organizations and businesses being there every time they are needed.

So thank you, from all of us at the Tri-County Red Cross.  You are truly appreciated.

Here's another school that really came through for us, the Allied Health in Elizabeth. It's a four minute video, but tells a lot obout the kids and the school. It's worth a look!

The Tri-County Red Cross responds to more than 60 home fires every year in Union, Somerset and Middlesex Counties and spends roughly $75,000 every winter helping families who lose their home to disaster with shelter, food and clothing.

All our support comes from local individuals, businesses and organizations - though we are government mandated to respond to disasters we receive no government funding.

Please consider making a special year-end tax-deductible gift to the American Red Cross either though our 2009 Holiday Giving Catalog, a one-time year-end gift to the Tri-County Red Cross, or become a Sustaining Red Cross Hero by setting up an automatic monthly payment of $10 or more.

Newark/Elizabeth: The Tri-County and Northern NJ chapters of the American Red Cross participated in the 2009 Newark Airport Drill on Saturday, September 12, 2009. This drill was conducted by the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey in conjunction with a number of other agencies including the FBI. The drill simulated a terrorist attack on an airplane with casualties and a fire.

 

The Red Cross, under the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996, assists the airlines, airport, and Federal departments with familiy assistance during airport/airline incidents. We provide disaster mental health, welfare information, and other assistance to the passengers, families, crew, aiport staff and first responders at or near the airport affected.

If you would like to become a Family Assistance Center volunteer for the Red Cross, please contact Mike Prasad at (908) 756-6414 x15. We especially need volunteers with current NJ mental health licenses (MD, PHD, LCSW, etc.) to help at these centers.

Other photos taken at the drill are available on our Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tricountyredcross/ 

Plainfield, NJ: This summer we were hosts to a number of high school students from JP Stevens High School in Edison, NJ.  Instead of spending time at the pool or the mall, these kids gave their time to the Tri-County Red Cross to help us get our offices and supplies ready for the upcoming hurricane and home fire seasons.

No job was too small -- or too big.  However, we're pretty sure that if any of these kids sees a shredder again it will be too soon!

 

They also built shelves in our office for storing disaster supplies in case there is a major event like Hurricane Floyd, 9/11 or the Nor 'Easter.

and moved disaster supplies from our office to a storage warehouse in Elizabeth.  The storage locker, by the way, was donated by Access Self Storage as was the van.  Thanks!

 

 You can see more photos at out Flickr site!