Hurricane Katrina

[Joe Matt]

For those who use the iTunes Music Store, Apple has added a one-click button to donate money to the RC, between $5-$200.

I feel so helpless, and guilty, in my concoon at Dayton, while some people are living with dead bodies around them and 20 feet deep water.

[Chris Fultz]

I'd hate to see our donations go to pay high six figure salaries for the EOs of the Red Cross,

Does anyone know the relative administrative costs of participating charities? Really, does anybody know?

Yes, and it is easy to find out. From the Red Cross 2004 AUDITED financial statement, their general and administrative expenses were 5% of their total expenses. Fundraising was an additional 3%. That means that about 92 cents of each dollar donated is going to go to aid. That is a good rate.

The best way to help right now is still a cash donation - then whatever charity you donate to can purchase the materials and supplies that are critically needed and get them to the people that need them.

[Alex Burman]

i had gotten a list of ideas for raising funds including

penny war
Fill the Fishbowl
sell candy
donation jars at various business

team 75 also hopes to send some of the samples our sponsor J&j gives us, which include band-aids toothbrushes as well as other hygienic supplies.


anyone else have any other good ideas

[Wetzel]

Blood banks around the country are sending blood to the area, even while they are critically low themselves. I know in Northern Virginia, Inova Blood Donor Services, our major blood supplier has less than a days supply on hand of almost all blood types. Blood banks in New Orleans and in most places throughout the country are in a similar state. Less then 5% of the eligible population actually donates on a regular basis.

Tragedy strikes everywhere, help your community to be prepared. For most donation services, you only need to get 50 people signed up to host a blood drive. Teams that have space for a field have the room needed for a drive. You can use it as part of a team/Red Cross fundraiser in addition to getting blood. Get people to sponsor a donor much like a walk-a-thon with the procedes going to the team/a team support fund for the New Orleans area/whomever you want.


Wetzel

[nehalita]

Our school has a blood drive on Sept 6 and I'm pushing to be able to give blood then (I had open heart surgery as a child so I have to check with my doctor)

Also members of our team are thinking of starting a clothes drive. I have so many shirts in my closet that I probably don't need and I probably donate clothes about 4-5 times a year -- this time though, I'll really clean it out good. Everyone has a shirt or two to donate, and I'm sure the SALVATION ARMY can handle these big loads -- especially now. It'd be great to get other teams into this and start clothes drives with their own teams and at their own schools.

Finally, in my art class, my art teacher is holding a money drive and she promised to match what we give. Just yesterday she collected 106 dollars -- just from students who had extra money that they didn't need, and that was through 4 periods in the day! It's not hard to donate some spare change -- maybe hold the dessert next time and donate that money to charity. Even if it's a little, it counts.

Sitting through the mildest part of Hurricane Katrina, I cannot even imagine what people went through in mississippi, louisiana, and alabama. They need our help in every way possible, it's our duty to stand up to that.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by Kyle

The University of Delaware and Delaware Technical are accepting students and providing as much housing as possible to students from all of those colleges that were affected we already have 3 people coming next week for Fire Eng from one of those schools.

Many colleges and universities are opening their doors to accept students displaced by the hurricane, including the college I work for, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT. If I find a website which lists them, I will post the URL so we can share the information with students we might know.

[Madison]

The University of Washington

[Fixen]

I'm looking for a way to donate money and supplies to Red Cross as a team and as an individual, which is likely to pop up when I start school next week.



If we want to bring these teams to FIRST, we should.

We first need to set up a means of sending funding to these 5 teams. I'm thinking of Paypal. While we accumulate money for the benefit of these teams, we can keep them in a universal Paypal account. Meanwhile, we send emails to members of the 5 affected teams about our efforts.

Many of these team members are currently still unreachable. However, if they can respond to us in time, we can channel the funds to them.

These team members have two options:
1) Form a unified team, so the total funds that we accumulate can fully support their facilities, tools, FIRST participation, and transportation.
2) Reform single teams. Our funds may or may not fully support them. If that is impossible, those funds can be a direct donation to the people in Louisiana.

[Chris Fultz]

Another option might be that we could send donations to FIRST, and FIRST could hold them in an account, for the funds to be used for registration fees (covering the Kit of Parts, at least), or to be distributed to cover travel expenses for teams to compete. Affected teams could "apply" for the funds and they could be used evenly by any teams that are able to continue.

[Arefin Bari]

I know this is a crazy idea but I will throw it out there anyways. This is the time when we need to work as a team and help the teams/people out in that area.

If every person in FIRST was to donate 5 dollars, do you realize how much money would be raised? Just think of it as you had a meal at McDonalds or even you put in 5 dollars of gas in your car to drive around. It will help someone out. How can it be done? Just like it was pointed out earlier, a Paypal account can be setup where we send the money for Katrina relief fund.

... 1000 teams in first, about 35 students per team that mean 35,0000 students in FIRST. Everybody donates 5 dollars, that's 1,750,000 Bucks. Think that would be a bit from one organization to help them out?

[gburlison]

WLOX

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

When I was a kid, my dad was a member of the local Rotary Club. As a Rotarian, he would volunteer to host exchange students from other countries. This added much to my childhood experience, as people from many cultures would stay with us for 3-4 months at a time.

We had young men from Germany, Brazil and Saudi Arabia stay with us. Once, a young lady from Australia was our guest. I recall asking her "what language do you speak in Australia?" (I was about 8)

I am wondering if we could do this for students on these FIRST teams in the Gulf Coast area? Of course, this time, there would be no "exchange". It could be a placement program for FIRST students from teams in this area.

Could this happen? Is it needed? What are some of the legal hurdles here? If anyone wants to help investigate this, PM me and we can start working on this idea.

Andy B.

Years ago I used to live on Gulf Coast of MS and over the years a hurricane would come through and do some damage, but it was usually only severe in a small area and nearby communities would pitch in and help out. Hurricane Frederick was probably the worst one to effect me personally. We were without power for weeks and school was delayed, but since the storm surge was not as wide spread, things returned to normal pretty quickly. With Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans teams may not be able to return to school for months, and the Gulfport schools may not have a school to return to. The schools that are not damaged are being used as shelters. I think the idea of a student exchange would be a great idea, but why limit it to FIRST students? If there are only 5 teams affected and the average FIRST team is 35 students as some have suggested, then we are only talking about 175 FIRST students out of the thousands of students that have been affected.
But don't forget, it is not just students that are displaced, it is whole families. At a stressful time like this, I am not sure that a student would want to be separated from the family. I think that any solution would have to take into account the family members. Some of these families have lost everything, their jobs, house, car, clothes, and other belongings like TVs and computers. These families might just pick up and relocate if the situation was right, i.e. a job and a place to stay.
I don't think that most of these students are thinking of FIRST. They are thinking,
When will I go home?
When can I sleep in my own bed?
When will I get my next hot meal?
When will I go back to school?

It will be a loss if these students miss out on the experience of FIRST this year, but I think any money that might be raised by FIRST teams should be used to help the relief effort and we can think about helping out with registration fees next year.

If you want to get a better idea of what is like on the MS Gulf Coast right now, the local television station WLOX has a lot of good video online.

[robot180]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

I know this is a crazy idea but I will throw it out there anyways. This is the time when we need to work as a team and help the teams/people out in that area.

If every person in FIRST was to donate 5 dollars, do you realize how much money would be raised? Just think of it as you had a meal at McDonalds or even you put in 5 dollars of gas in your car to drive around. It will help someone out. How can it be done? Just like it was pointed out earlier, a Paypal account can be setup where we send the money for Katrina relief fund.

... 1000 teams in first, about 35 students per team that mean 35,0000 students in FIRST. Everybody donates 5 dollars, that's 1,750,000 Bucks. Think that would be a bit from one organization to help them out?

I agree with this idea. It would not be much money per team, but if a lot of teams do this, there would be a lot of money, even more then a local team could raise on their own.

[Joe Matt]

Check out:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+Or...0704&t=e&hl=en

[Rich Kressly]

Alright. I've been reading, thinking, and talking to many others about how we as a family can best help. Trying to synthesize all the best from above, here are my thoughts. Competing in FIRST should barely be on anyone's mind here. Without going into a complete lesson on Maslow's Needs, lets funnel the bulk of our energies toward anything that aids survival, safety, or recovery:

a. Monetary Donations: donating to FIRST directly and having them funnel money to sources adds to the workload of an overworked group and only slows the process. We don't need to know how much was sent or to which part of the relief effort, we all just need to send what we can - NOW. On the other hand, if we could work out something that sends a portion of our FRC registration fees, that could work. For instance, if registration fees could be increased by $25 and if there could be some sort of matching effort, we could generate a lot of cash over 1,000 or more registrations.

b. Clothing or Supplies: If you can't write the check right now, you can dig around and put a bag of clothes together to quickly find out where to drop them off. Every event, offseason and regular season, should have the ability on-site to take monetary AND clothing donations to be sent off.

c. Volunteers: My wife is a career nurse and I'm not afraid to do anything needed. We have already begun to try and figure out when we might be able to juggle the time. People will be needed for years in this effort to stabilize and recover. If you or a group can afford some time, organize things and go help. I believe the Red Cross is asking for a minimum 2-week commitment, but over time there will be lots of opportunities of all kinds I'm sure.

d. If teams can be located, find out what they need to survive, find eachother, stabilize, and rebuild. If you want to host them, GREAT - open up your home and let them stay. Talk about robotics and participation only after all else is taken care of. Please don't forget about FLL here. As a Sr. Mentor I received an email from Nancy Paul about the status of our FLL partners and teams in the region. Some have been found, others may be among the missing. We have large numbers of FLL participants in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast.

e. Competing: In my individual opinion, I have very mixed feelings about raising any funds for extrance fees of displaced teams when there are homes, communities, and lives to rebuild. However, I like John's idea of focusing on the affordable (FIRST Vex Challenge perhaps, adopting team members, etc). I would love to see all students who want to participate as part of their individual recovery be able to do it.

This is a time for compassion and sacrifice. If you want others to really look up to you, take the lead in a positive and kind way and make a difference (no matter how small) for someone suffering in the south right now.

[nehalita]

To give you an idea of what people are doing to help