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RESOURCES
Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce offers links and info. Kings Park Cares - Community Rallies to Send Relief to WTC Volunteers The LI Radio Relief Fund, which will benefit widows and children of firefighters, police officers and EMS workers killed in the devastating attack on the World Trade Center, will continue at Roosevelt Field (K-JOY 98.3), The Mall at The Source (1100 WHLI) and Walt Whitman Mall (B-103/Island 94.3) all week. From 12 noon - 8 p.m. at Walt Whitman Mall and 3 p.m. - 8 p.m. at Roosevelt Field and The Mall at The Source. So far, over $70,000 has been collected. Checks made payable to the "L.I. Radio Relief Fund" can also be mailed to Ridgewood Savings Bank, PO Box 769, New Hyde Park, NY 11040-9764 or brought to any Ridgewood Savings Bank branch office. |
September 15, 2001 The response to requests for donations to help service organizations assisting in the rescue and recovery operations at the WTC disaster site has been so strong that donor groups have been asked to stop sending materials, at least temporarily. Most of the donated items are being housed at New York's Javitt's Center on located on the West Side. At some point the amount of materials being dropped off there got so massive that officials were concerned that it was causing traffic problems. Nevertheless, quickly organized Long Island groups that set up donation centers have continued their efforts, with local companies offering to warehouse the items for later use. In Huntington, for instance, a donation drive which established its base of operations at the Melville Bowl, adjacent to Long Island Blood Services building, has been gathering goods since Tuesday afternoon. According to the group's organizers, they have already sent in an estimated six tractor trailer loads of merchandise to the disaster relief effort. With local companies offering storage space, trucking and other support their effort has been monumentally successful. Peggy Latham, manager of the bowling alley, and Joe Glaser started the effort Tuesday afternoon, according to Robin Laban, one of the volunteers manning the drop off point on Saturday. "It became so big so fast, just by word of mouth," said Laban. "Now we are trying to make sure we gather only what they want. We don't want to turn people away so we are going to warehouse things." The warehousing will take place at Shurgard facilities, Verizon Pioneers are helping man the drop off point as are Melville Bowl employees, Office Max in Melville donated coolers, Roadway Express personnel made deliveries, Waste Management donated a rolloff, and Reckson Associates offered warehouse space as did Bagnato Realty. At the Waldbaums shopping center on Route 110, boy scout and girl scout troops were also collecting donations of water and gatorade type drinks for their effort as well. Just north of this group, six radio stations set up a donation site at the Walt Whitman Mall. By 11:00 a.m. on Saturday the representatives of the Long Island Radio Relief Fund, set up by Barnstable Broadcasting had collected more than $2,000 from mall shoppers. (See rest of notice) Michael Banks said, "All of the money we collect will be donated to the Uniformed Fire Fighters Association Widows and Children's Fund and the Police Benevolent Association Widow and Children's Fund. We are not keeping one penny for any type of administration." The group also had donation sites set up at The Source Mall over this weekend. The stations owned by Barnstable on Long Island include KJOY 98.3, WRCN, WHLI, B103, The Island 94.3 and WLVG. In Kings Park a group formed quickly, calling themselves Kings Park Cares. They have set up a drop off point in the municipal parking lot on 25A in the heart of Kings Park. This group's goods are being transported and/or stored if necessary by Plycon Trucking. Although this effort only really materialized on Saturday, every minute at least one car pulled up to drop off some goods and it was piling up quickly. Young children took bags from classmates and sorted them into cardboard boxes. Others sealed the boxes which were then passed to adults to be loaded onto the truck. Here also checks were accepted for the Salvation Army and Red Cross. People were even responding to requests for dog food for the dozens of search and rescue dogs working the scene before the city relief coordinators called off those requests because these working dogs are all on special diets and don't eat ordinary dog food. The relief organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army are now requesting cash donations which they can use to purchase whatever is needed. Sources said it is more reasonable under the circumstances to let them purchase the goods themselves since donations would probably have to be checked for security purposes. It is important that residents make sure any cash donations they make go to a credible organization. Many scam artists have been reported to have set up phony charities to take advantage of people's good will which will only line their pockets and not help one single victim of this tragedy. Click
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