High School Key Club raises $4,000 for Red Cross Hurricane Relief

Date: 11/3/2008

Jonathan Gregalis, student and president of the East Longmeadow High School Key Club, presented a $4,000 contribution on behalf of the Club to Paige Thayer, Director of Chapter Support of the American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter for Red Cross Hurricane Relief.

The gift represents contributions collected by the Key Club at their Oct. 15 Powder Puff Football event at East Longmeadow High School.

The Key Club is a youth affiliate of Kiwanis, a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. Kiwanis members help shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor the disadvantaged and care for the sick. They develop youth as leaders, build play grounds, raise funds for pediatric research, and much more. The East Longmeadow High School Club boasts a 130 member group which includes students from all four high school classes.

The club selected the American Red Cross as the beneficiary of funds raised at this year's Powder Puff Game. The football teams were comprised of girls recruited to play; the regular football players took on the role of cheerleaders.

During the games, collection cans were available for attendees and proceeds of concessions were donated toward this effort. The club collected $4,000, the most collected by the Key Club in the last 20 years at this event.

"We are so grateful for this very generous donation to support hurricane relief for Red Cross," Thayer said. "These young people are nothing short of amazing they approached this effort with terrific enthusiasm and the results are astounding. Our community can be very proud of the powerful impact this terrific group of students have made."

The Disaster Relief Fund allows the Red Cross to provide emergency assistance to help victims of disasters meet their immediate needs for food, shelter, counseling and other critical services. The Red Cross responds to 70,000 disasters each year the majority of them "silent" disasters never making the news. After tragedy strikes, the Red Cross relies on this fund to mobilize volunteers and resources to help communities throughout the United States.

The American Red Cross continues to help individuals and families affected by the 2008 storms and hurricanes so far this season: Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. After responding to more than 60 large-scale disasters so far this year, including a record-breaking tornado season, widespread flooding across central U.S. and extensive wildfires, the American Red Cross is in the midst of an active hurricane season without a strong base of funds. Chapters across the country are working with the national organization to launch a national fundraising campaign to raise an initial $100 million to fill a Disaster Relief Fund depleted after an active year of disasters.

In the interim, the Red Cross is borrowing money to cover the costs of the hurricanes of 2008. Despite this, the Red Cross has not cut any of its services to disaster victims and does not expect to do so.

You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the hurricanes of 2008, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. You can log on to www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) to make a donation. You can also use your cell phone to donate $5 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by text messaging the keyword "GIVE" to "2HELP" (24357).

You can send multiple donations depending on your carrier. Contributions will appear on monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance. All applicable text rates apply.