Disaster doesn't take a holiday

Many of us spent much of the last couple of weeks celebrating with friends and family. Between Christmas, New Year's and all the other holidays, the end of December and beginning of January should be busy but happy times.

Unfortunately, disaster doesn't take the holidays off.  Since December 23rd, we've responded to 11 separate fires and other related incidents in Erie County, providing for the immediate emergency needs of 55 people.


Photo courtesy wgrz.com

 Among the recent cases, our Disaster Action Team provided assistance to eight people, including young children, following a late Christmas Eve fire on Broadway in Depew. On Christmas Day, our volunteers responded to three separate incidents, assisting eight people in the City of Buffalo. Food, clothing and shelter were provided to two individuals following a fatal fire on Main Street in Clarence on December 29^th, and mental health services were offered to all involved in this tragedy. On New Year’s Eve, the Red Cross provided assistance to 18 people following a rooming house fire on Ashley Street in Buffalo.

We could not provide this vital emergency service to the community without volunteers such as Betsy Crocker of Amherst, Melissa Morris of Buffalo, Fred Pask of Akron, Sandra Rhoat of Cheektowaga, Diane Sargent of Lockport and Pete Swales from Springville, who along with staff members Amanda Campbell and Christine Kukelka sacrificed some of their family time this holiday to respond to these incidents and help our neighbors in need. We say this all the time, yet it's never enough--THANK YOU for everything that you do!

If you'd like to Join Us as a Disaster Action Team member, please contact volunteer coordinator Christine Kukelka at kukelkac@usa.redcross.org or visit www.buffaloredcross.org.

Resolve to help others--and cut your tax bill--this New Year's!

Photo courtesy mama-knows.com

This time of year, many of us are making some New Year's resolutions. Often, these involve eating better, getting more exercise and other plans for self-improvement during the coming year. For proof, just check out the extra cars in the parking lot at your local gym over the next few weeks!

Many people also make charitable contributions at the end of the year as part of this holiday tradition. The American Red Cross urges you to resolve to help your neighbors in need by making a tax-deductible donation to the Red Cross before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.

A Red Cross national poll found that 57 percent of those surveyed planned to donate to charity during the holiday season, and more than half of them (54 percent) plan to give at least $50. Nationally, donations in December account for about 20 percent of all non-disaster contributions from the public to the Red Cross, and we depend on these donations to provide hope, help and compassion.

Hundreds of thousands of people needed help from the Red Cross in 2011, their lives forever changed by disasters like tornadoes, floods, wildfires and hurricanes in the U.S., and earthquakes and other disasters around the world. In the U.S., the Red Cross launched 137 domestic disaster relief operations in 46 states and territories to help people affected by fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. In addition, major international disasters included the Japan earthquake and tsunami response and the continuing work following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The need was evident here in Erie and Niagara Counties over the Christmas weekend as our Disaster Action Team responded to multiple fires, providing emergency assistance to families that lost everything in the blink of an eye this holiday.

If your New Year's Resolutions include helping those less fortunate, you can make a donation at www.redcross.org, by calling 1-800-REDCROSS, or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation (charges will appear on your cell phone bill). 

In addition, you can still go to the American Red Cross Holiday Gift Catalog and buy a symbolic gift. These also are tax-deductible contributions to the overall Red Cross mission. The catalog includes donations for items such as a military comfort kit filled with a phone card, robe, shower shoes, toiletries and an MP3 music gift card for those who have been wounded. Disaster-related items include blankets to wrap around a woman standing in her yard this winter after her house has burned to the ground; hot meals to make sure no one goes hungry when a disaster strikes; or a toothbrush, soap and other essential personal care supplies for a child sheltered from a storm. For those with global interests, the Holiday Gift Catalog contains a number of gifts to bring Red Cross services to people in crisis overseas. These include emergency water containers to help families collect and store clean water, tarps to provide temporary shelter and shovels to dig ditches when floods threaten.

What better way to finish 2011 than with early action on a resolution to lend a helping hand? Help someone in need and resolve to contribute to the Red Cross before the traditional singing of Auld Lang Syne, and you'll also be helping yourself to break on your 2011 taxes. Now that's something we can all raise our champagne glasses to this New Year's Eve!!

Ryan Fitzpatrick Scores Big For Two Local Families

As a certified sports junkie, I can tell you that it's getting harder and harder to be a fan these days.  It seems there's more arrests, lawsuits and big money wheeling and dealing in the sports pages than there are scores.  But for every negative story involving athletes, there's many more positive ones that don't get nearly as much attention, and we're lucky to have many of the good ones playing right here in Western New York.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and his wife played Santa Claus to two families who lost everything in separate fires in November of this year.  Even though his beard is brown and not white, "FitzMagic" provided a little more to these families than Saint Nick usually leaves under the tree.  Thanks to a generous donation through the United Way, the Fitzpatrick's have completely stocked these families new homes with furniture, TVs, computers for school, household supplies, blankets and, of course, toys.  Over coffee and donuts generously donated by Tim Horton's, the families got to met their "Secret Santa" at our Administrative Headquarters on Delaware Avenue Friday evening, as the Fitzpatrick's took time out of their busy schedule to personally deliver just some of the holiday cheer their support made possible.

The stories of these families, like so many that come through our doors throughout the year, are heartbreaking.  But to see the looks on their faces when they met the star quarterback and saw what he did for them really made me understand what the holiday spirit is all about, and every one of you that has ever donated, volunteered or supported the Red Cross in any way should know that you help create those same feelings all year round.

With seven straight losses heading into this afternoon's game against the Broncos, it's easy to wonder if there's been anything positive to come out of this 2011 Bills season.  But no matter what the results are on the field, Ryan Fitzpatrick has shown us he is definitely someone we can all root for!

We need your holiday spirit all year round!

This morning, I woke up to a email request from one of the talented reporters at a local TV station, asking about the Red Cross response to an early-morning fire on Clay Street in Buffalo.  In responding to his request, I discovered three separate cases had been referred to our emergency services department, and as of this afternoon we are providing for the immediate emergency needs of a family of five.  I also learned that the NFTA helped to keep people warm at the scene of the fire, then provided those affected with bus transportation to our Delaware Avenue headquarters to begin working on their recovery plan.  A nice holiday story of neighbors helping neighbors.

And that's what got me thinking. The original media request mentioned how these families had "lost everything less than a week before Christmas."  I think everyone's natural reaction, including mine, is to feel a little extra touch of sadness when thinking about those children that may not have any presents under the tree this year because of this fire.  But is their loss really any greater than that of the family who suffered a similar disaster in September?  They also suddenly found themselves with no place to live, no clothes to wear to work, and nothing to play with after school.

Red Cross file photo

Here in Erie and Niagara Counties, the Red Cross responds to nearly 400 disasters every year--an average of more than one per day.  Spring, summer, winter or fall, the 762 people that turned to us for help after a fire last year all suffered some sort of loss, and we provided each of them with the same level of services to help turn their heartbreak into hope.  Nationally, the American Red Cross opened 137 large-scale relief operations in 2011, serving more than 6.7 million meals and snacks and providing over 130,000 overnight shelter stays.

It's the holiday spirit that makes us all feel even more sympathy when a disaster hits someone this time of year, and moves many of us to support charitable organizations during this "season of giving."   But disaster knows no season, and it's important that we all carry that spirit of giving with us year-round, so we can help our neighbors in need 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.