SE MI chapter thanks MLB star Ordonez for $100K donation to support relief efforts

DETROIT—Today in a heartfelt showing of appreciation for his generosity, the Southeastern Michigan chapter of the American Red Cross publicly thanked Detroit Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez for his $100,000 contribution supporting the American Red Cross relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.

As one of Michigan’s most renowned athletes, Ordonez’s generous gift was lauded by the Southeastern Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross as they continue to ask for local support for what will be a long-term relief effort.

“Magglio not only wields a big bat on the field, but also when it comes to supporting humanitarian causes,” said Jim Laverty, CEO of the Southeastern Michigan Chapter. “We are extremely grateful for his generosity and his donation will certainly help in providing ongoing relief to those on the ground in Haiti.”

Since January 12, the American Red Cross remains as one of the lead humanitarian organizations in Port-au-Prince helping to provide medical aid, food, shelter and water to thousands of Haitians everyday. To date, the Red Cross has provided daily emergency relief to hundreds of thousands in Haiti. In addition, the organization has:

• Produced more than 1.2 million liters of water daily for more than 300,000 people
• Provided more than 1 million water purifiers for people to clean and carry water
• Distributed food and relief items (blankets, hygiene kits, water containers, laundry soap and mosquito nets) to more than 250,000 people

The Red Cross continues to make progress each day, however due to the many complexities of this disaster and the extraordinary needs of the Haitian people, officials estimate that the emergency relief phase could last for up to 12 months.

People can still donate in support of the relief effort in Haiti at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS. Mobile donors can text “HAITI” to 90999 to make a $10 contribution. Red Cross officials have estimated that at least 91 cents of every dollar goes towards relief and recovery efforts for this disaster.

A $10 donation can provide a family with two water cans to store clean drinking water, basic first aid supplies or a blanket.

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Contact Howard Hughey
313-743-3527

WASHINGTON, Thursday, February 11, 2010 — Hundreds of thousands of cell phone users have made $10 donations to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund by sending the word “Haiti” to 90999, raising a record-shattering $32 million in mobile giving for the ongoing relief efforts.

The mobile giving program was established within hours of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti through the efforts of the U.S. State Department, Mobile Accord/mGive Foundation, CTIA – The Wireless Association, and the American Red Cross.

The text “Haiti” to 90999 has been an easy and efficient way for people to lend their support to those affected by the earthquake, and has been widely promoted during major televised events such as the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards and through public service advertisements by First Lady Michelle Obama and by a number of celebrities. For example, a promotion of the text “Haiti” to 90999 during the Super Bowl resulted in a jump in mobile donations that pushed the total past $32 million.

Donations from the mobile giving program support the American Red Cross relief and recovery work in Haiti.

“Because of the generosity of donors through this mobile giving program, people in Haiti are receiving help following this tragedy and they will receive resources, support and training from the Red Cross that will help them recover and rebuild for years to come,” said Jeff Towers, chief development officer of the Red Cross. “A $10 donation made through mobile giving can provide a family with two water cans to store clean drinking water, basic first aid supplies or a blanket. We are grateful to the more than 3.1 million donors and their mobile phone service providers who waived texting fees and expedited the processing of donations.”

The American Red Cross has already received more than $15 million from the text donations thanks to the efforts of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

“This is a great example of rapidly employing modern technology to support a vitally important foreign policy and humanitarian priority. We at the Department of State are gratified at the generous response of the American people in support of the Red Cross’ rapid response to the crisis in Haiti,” said P.J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the State Department.

“This incredible response is an affirmation of the goodwill of millions of Americans,” said James Eberhard, mGive’s chairman. “As the leader in the mobile giving space, it was our duty to respond and organize the mobile industry to allow people to give through their mobile phones. As part of this, Mobile Accord donated its services and platform to help in the relief efforts. Over the last four weeks, the mGive Platform saw peak periods processing over $1 million and over 100,000 transactions in under an hour.”

Donations to the Red Cross will help with both the short-term relief and long-term recovery of Haiti. The American Red Cross has spent or committed nearly $78 million to meet the most urgent needs of earthquake survivors, with 71 percent of the funds spent or committed for food and water; 20 percent for shelter supplies such as tents, blankets, tarps and sleeping mats; and the rest are for health and family services. In addition, the American Red Cross is also providing blood and blood products for patients in Haiti, along with family-linking services to reconnect those who were separated during the disaster. Creole-speaking volunteers are helping aboard the hospital ship, the USNS Comfort.

The American Red Cross has about 100 relief specialists and volunteers helping with the relief efforts in Haiti (including the Creole interpreters on the USNS Comfort hospital ship). In total, more than 600 Red Cross and Red Crescent workers from at least 30 countries around the world are in Haiti working with more than 2,500 Haitian Red Cross volunteers in areas such as health, logistics, and relief supply distribution.

The Red Cross network is producing more than 1 million liters of water per day in Haiti, enough for 300,000 people, and Red Cross distributions of food and relief items (blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, buckets, water containers, laundry soap/detergent, and mosquito nets) have reached nearly 32,000 families (or 170,000 people). In addition, an average of 1,600 patients are being treated each day at the combined six Red Cross health facilities in Haiti, and the Red Cross teams are part of a major vaccination program that started this past weekend to vaccinate 250,000 children, ages 6 weeks to 7 years, against measles, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus.

Government and relief agencies agree it will take many years to rebuild Haiti. The Red Cross is working in close collaboration with other responding organizations to support immediate needs and long-term recovery projects.

To support the American Red Cross efforts in Haiti, people can text “Haiti” to 90999 on a cell phone to make a $10 donation, visit www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS.

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at www.redcross.org.

About mGive.com and Mobile Accord, Inc.
www.mGive.com , a subsidiary of Mobile Accord. Inc. is the innovator and leader in mobile technology for nonprofit organizations, powering mobile donations in the United States. Founded in 2005, mGive was the first company in the U.S. to offer mobile tools specifically built for nonprofit organizations. mGive serves more than 250 leading U.S. nonprofit organizations and has processed more than 95% of all mobile donations to date. Visit www.mgive.com for more information.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation’s blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

(DETROIT – February 4, 2010) - Metro Detroit businesses, both large and small, have gotten behind American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti, following the devastating earthquake.

Health Alliance Plan (HAP) and its parent company, Henry Ford Health System, set up an online donation site for Red Cross relief efforts, after an outpouring from employees expressing the desire to help. Henry Ford Health System is matching employee donations up to a total of $10,000. As of last Friday, employees at both companies throughout southeast Michigan had donated $24,069, equaling $34,069 with the company match.

The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) also set up an online donation link to the Red Cross Haiti relief fund, allowing its nearly 12,000 employees in eight hospitals to contribute directly. As of Friday, DMC employees had contributed $18,800.

Quicken Loans 3,000 team members in metro-Detroit, Cleveland, Oh and Scottsdale, Ariz., have all stepped-up to contribute to the Red Cross’ relief efforts. Team members have several ways to contribute, including payroll deduction. The company is also matching all donations dollar-for-dollar with no set maximum.

Quicken Loans has also held several fund-raisers including jeans days and a pot-luck lunch fundraiser. While fundraisers are ongoing, Quicken Loans has already raised $30,000.

The General Motors Foundation donated $100,000 to the Red Cross relief fund, and also set up a web link where employees can donate to the Red Cross.

Ford Motor Co. also set up a web link for employees to donate to the Red Cross, and pledged a generous matching grant.

TRW Automotive is raising money through a charity jeans day next Thursday, where all 300 employees at its Washington, Mich. location are encouraged to wear jeans in exchange for contributing at least $5 for Red Cross relief efforts.

Two Detroit Tigers got in the action in a big way. Outfielder Magglio Ordonez donated $100,000 to Red Cross Haitian relief efforts, and first baseman Miguel Cabrera gave $90,000 to Project Medishare for Haiti Inc., which is providing medical relief.

The Detroit Tigers also invited Red Cross volunteers from the Southeastern Michigan Chapter to its recent TigerFest to collect contributions from fans for Haitian relief, and the ball club raised additional money through fundraisers and pitched in a matching grant.

At Valassis, its Giving Committee set up an internal pledge drive, where its roughly 5,000 US-based employees made pledges for the Red Cross via company email. So far, employees have made donations of about $10,000 for the cause.

Other organizations that are raising money for Red Cross Haitian relief efforts include:

The Detroit Red Wings Foundation, which is donating money from a recent 50/50 fundraising raffle.

Chrysler Financial, which is raising money through a charity jeans day.

GST AutoLeather, which gave a substantial company donation.

The City of Southfield, whose staff is putting on various fundraisers.

All kinds of smaller organizations have been equally generous in their support - from schools, restaurants and grocery stores, to senior apartment centers and places of worship. Collection plates have been passed around. Schools have held fundraisers, such as charging $1 to wear a cap, and restaurants have donated proceeds from dinners. Another organization held a drop-in “Yoga for Haiti” charity class.

Red Cross Haiti Response Update:

Logistical problems are getting smaller, and the humanitarian pipeline is opening wider each day, but the needs in Haiti are still immense.
So far, more than 64 flights carrying Red Cross aid have arrived in Haiti.
Four Red Cross warehouses are open and operating at full capacity.
The Red Cross is now producing 1 million liters of water per day, enough for 185,000 people to receive 5.4 liters per day. Teams are preparing to latrine construction, also.
To date, Red Cross distributions of food and relief items (blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, buckets, water containers, laundry soap/detergent, and mosquito nets) have reached nearly 100,000 people (or 20,000 families).
The Red Cross, in partnership with UNICEF and the World Health Organization, will begin a vaccination program this Friday to vaccinate 150,000 children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. The Red Cross will also be teaching basic health skills, and emotional support teams will be helping children with the emotional trauma.
At the six Red Cross health facilities, a total of 1,200 patients are being treated each day.
Because of the generosity of donors, people in Haiti will receive more than immediate relief – they will receive resources, support and training from the Red Cross that will help them for years to come.

About the American Red Cross, Southeastern Michigan Chapter

The American Red Cross, Southeastern Michigan Chapter is a non-profit humanitarian organization that turns caring into action by providing three core services for residents in the tri-county area: relief to disaster victims, support to military personnel (both active and veteran) and their families, and the knowledge and skills to help the community prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. We are volunteer-driven and reflect the diversity of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. As part of the international Red Cross network, we are dedicated to protecting human life and dignity locally, nationally and worldwide.

To learn more, log on to www.semredcross.org or follow our blog at www.semtourofduty.org.

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By Joe Lowry, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Monday, January 25, 2010 — A Survivor
The first time we saw four-year-old Joe was heartbreaking.

He was barely able to sit, wiping crumbs off the little cardboard mat that had become his home. He cleared a space to sleep, like his mother would have done, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped into a daze.

Joe came from nowhere. Someone noticed him lying naked on the ground and he was brought to the Red Cross field hospital in the center of Haiti’s shattered capital.

Mageli St. Simon, a Haitian Red Cross volunteer, started taking care of him. “His head was injured,” she said. “And he was sick; maybe malaria, maybe typhoid.”

St. Simon started to interact with the sick child, and after a day or so, she got his name. She gave him a pen and paper, and he drew his mother and father. Then she gave him a toy phone.

“He started speaking to his mother. I asked him what she was saying. He told me, ‘She says don’t look for me, I’m dead.’ I don’t know how he knew, someone must have told him before he got lost.”

Three days on, Joe’s doing well. He's still sick, but is taking water and a little food. He draws us a cross. I tell him my name is Joe too, and he gives me a long, deep look.

He’s a beautiful, fragile little boy, with a slight squint that makes him look even more vulnerable; it makes you want to protect him.

St. Simon agrees. “You have to really know yourself before you know other people,” she said. “That’s why I take care of Joe, to know what he needs. I can’t give people any money, but I can help in my own way.”

If Joe has no family members who can take on the responsibility of caring for him, the little boy will go to an orphanage as soon as a suitable organization working with orphans can be found. And he’ll do fine. He’s a survivor.

A Relief Worker
Grim reality has a way of knocking at the door for the aid workers in Haiti. That was certainly true for American Red Cross relief worker Steve McAndrew, who is serving as the head of the global Red Cross relief operation in Haiti.

“I was walking across the parking lot when a voice said, ‘Sir, can you help me?’ I said, ‘I’m really sorry, this isn’t a hospital.’ She screamed, and it was then that I saw the baby in her arms. He was small, maybe four or six months old, and he had a drip in his leg. He was foaming at the mouth and his chest was heaving up and down, up and down," McAndrew remembers.

"I called over two of my medical colleagues. They put the baby in the shade and started to check him over. Then a surgeon came over and said the kid had to get to hospital fast.”

We had to be quite aggressive to clear the dozens of cars and trucks that were in the way. We weren’t expecting a critically ill child to be brought in," McAndrew said.

The boy was sped to the Red Cross field hospital, where he was received by Dr. Hossam Elsharkawi. The baby's condition was so severe that he needed immediate ventilation and was rushed by helicopter to the USNS Comfort, an offshore floating hospital run by the military, where American Red Cross volunteers are serving as interpreters.

“We don’t now if he will survive or not, but he’s in the best possible place,” said Elsharkawi.

A Local Volunteer
Tessa is 22 years old and has the world at her feet. She just graduated from a university in Florida, where she studied biology and public health. A month before the earthquake, she came home to Haiti to have some time off, look for a job and think about settling down in the land she loves.

Then her world turned upside down. Although her family escaped tragedy, there was no question about where she would go: the Red Cross. Her father, Dr. Guiteau Jean-Pierre, is an executive committee member of the Haitian National Red Cross Society, so within hours of the disaster, Tessa—like thousands of others—was volunteering.

Her background and trilingualism made her a natural candidate to work at a Red Cross field hospital in Delmas, a heavily hit part of the capital. The devastation all around, and the harrowing stories she hears and sees every day, bring her down.

“Oh God, I love this country so much,” she sighed. “But I wonder if the hope will ever come back. Right now I am questioning if I want to stay here, if I can raise children here. I just don’t know. It’s so sad.”

But then she brightens, secure in the knowledge that she’s doing the right thing—the only thing she can do to help those less fortunate.

“Maybe the hope will come back. This is such a great country.”

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at www.redcross.org.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 —

American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern traveled to Haiti today to visit relief operations and help coordinate the distribution of aid.

McGovern is meeting with Dr. Michaële Amédée Gedeon, president of the Haitian Red Cross, and will visit a first aid post outside the damaged American Red Cross headquarters. This is just one of 11 mobile posts where volunteers are working to treat wounded survivors. She will also visit a Red Cross relief distribution center where family kits, water and shelter supplies are being organized and given to survivors.

McGovern will meet with the Haitian government later today as a follow-up to a meeting held in the Dominican Republic on Monday, where Red Cross and government leaders from around the world gathered to organize a global response to unprecedented need in Haiti.

There are more than 400 Red Cross workers from around the world in Haiti, as well as thousands of local volunteers. In addition to the first aid posts, outreach teams are also aiding the injured in nearby camps. Red Cross responders from six countries are treating injuries and triaging people for surgery at hospitals and medical centers in Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel.

Planes and trucks carrying Red Cross humanitarian assistance are arriving in the region every day, delivering much needed materials such as medical supplies, tarps, blankets, hygiene items, buckets, shelter supplies and kitchen sets. So far, more than 500 tons of Red Cross aid have been mobilized.

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at www.redcross.org.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.