|
Reiser
Relief Inc. 501(c)(3) Corporation - All
donations are 100% tax deductible
|
A
total
of
$20,000 in
matching funds have been made available to Reiser Relief Inc.
for
support of short-term relief and long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. (click for more details)
Click
HERE
to
match
YOUR
donation
Home Introduction Projects Donate About Us
|
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Emergency
Haiti Earthquake Relief Urgently Needed!
 HEP
Development Services has a database of companies matching Haiti relief donations.
Click the button to find out if and how your employer will match your
gift.
Reiser Relief
Inc. Federal
Tax ID EIN: 87-0778133
Relief
funds
will be used to purchase food in Haiti from markets and local
farmers in Titanyen and the mountains of Les Pinasse. This will
provide a ready to eat nutritious meal of fresh fruit and vegetables,
and salted fish for protein as well as financially supporting the
Haitian community.
“Clean Water” is a key factor for life – which is
program
Reiser Relief
Inc., has been doing since 2005 with a “Water Deliver Truck” This water
truck operates six days a week making four trips to many neighborhoods;
totaling 84,000 gallons of drinkable fresh water each week to Cite
Soleil.
Reiser Relief Inc. has built schools and orphanages,
with cisterns to hold water and sanitary block and this would be the
long term relief plan to rebuild them again. Removal
and clean up of debris with our Bobcat and Dump
Truck. Provide electricity where needed with our generator.
UPDATE
-
3/20/2010
UPDATE
-
3/5/2010
UPDATE
-
3/2/2010
Haiti bake sale fundraiser by
kindergartners in Greece
The
Melina’s Kindergarten and Melina’s Jr School of the International School of Athens located
in Greece had a bake sale fundraiser to raise funds for people
suffering in Haiti and to bring an awareness to each child as to what
happens in the world around them. They wanted to find a charity
that was already doing good work in Haiti which would be a good cause
for the children to support. Reiser Relief Inc. was
selected. In total, the children of school raised 574 Euros
(approximately $775), and this gift was matched to make a total
donation of $1550. Reiser Relief has a current
matching
grant, so in effect, it is amazing, that a small school of
children in Greece was able to provide Haiti relief support of $3100.
UPDATE
-
2/25/2010
Kevin McClellan - Called to quench a
slum's thirst "in Haiti"
Reiser Relief's Haiti Water Coordinator Kevin McClellan
Star Tribune interview.
By JIM SPENCER, Star
Tribune
Last update: February 25,
2010 - 11:46 AM
They ran for blocks when they saw the big truck with the Minnesota
license plate roll by. Little girls and old women, little boys and
young men, all chasing the shiny silver tanker down streets of Cite
Soleil, one of the world’s worst slums. Past fly-infested garbage
piles, by canals reeking of raw sewage, they carried buckets, pans,
pots, tubs — anything that could hold what has become gold in the ruins
of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake: clean water.
[Full Story]
[Picture
Gallery] [Video]
UPDATE
-
2/24/2010
The St. Croix Valley Faith Formation Haiti
Presentation by Fr. Reiser
The St. Croix Valley Faith Formation afternoon and
evening confirmation classes heard a presentation from Fr.
Bernard Reiser on the Haiti relief effort.
The Faith Formation will be assisting Reiser and
Haiti through its Lenten Alms-giving program, which will begin Feb. 24.
The public was invited to hear Reiser's presentation
at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the St. Micheal's Social Hall and at 7:45
p.m. in St. Mary's Great Hall.
Reiser is the founding pastor of Epiphany Parish in
Coon Rapids and served as their pastor for 40 years. For many years,
the parish was known as one of the largest in the five-state area.
Reiser, now retired, has been very active in the
Haiti relief effort. Over several years, he and others have also helped
build a school, an elderly care facility, distributed food and water
and operated an orphanage in the Caribbean island.
UPDATE
-
2/15/2010
Qwest Communications donates to Haiti
earthquake relief efforts
Qwest
Communications (NYSE: Q) donates $500 to Reiser Relief Inc.,
through its innovative Qwest Foundation volunteer Matching-Time
program, for when an employee volunteers 40 hours or more to a
nonprofit corporation qualifies them to receive this grant. In 2009, current and
former Qwest employees volunteered more than 1 million hours in the
community, the equivalent of more than $20 million of in-kind resources
to non-profits.
About Qwest Foundation
The Qwest Foundation's core principle is that investing in people and
communities provides lasting value for the future. The Qwest Foundation
awards grants to community-based programs that generate high-impact and
measurable results, focusing on pre-K through grade 12 education.
UPDATE
-
2/12/2010
Minnesotans helping Haiti - startribune.com
By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune Last update: February 12, 2010 -
10:22 PM
From polar plunges to wine tastings, from organized projects to
spontaneous events, Minnesotans are doing what they can.
The Rev. Bernard Reiser, founder of Reiser Relief based in Coon Rapids,
has been helping Haitians for decades. The plight of the Haitian people
clearly has touched Minnesotans, he said.
"People don't just happen to be generous,'' Reiser said. "They have to
be inspired. That's what's happened here.'' [Full
Story]
UPDATE
-
2/10/2010
Reiser Relief donates $10,000 to Feed My Starving Children - ABC
Newspapers
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 by Sue Austreng
Feb. 2, the three-week anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, Reiser
Relief, Inc. presented Feed My Starving Children with a gift of $10,000
– funds raised by faithful followers and compounded with compassion.
Rev. Bernard Reiser, founder of Reiser Relief, Inc., presents a $10,000
check to Feed My Starving Children Executive Director Mark Crea. The
money will pay for nearly 77,000 MannaPack-Potato meals to be
distributed to Haitian orphans. MannaPack-Potato is a
specially-designed fortified potato and soy protein meal package that
has proven successful in treating malnourished children suffering from
life-threatening diarrhea. [Full
Story]
Double your Haiti
Donation begins today at 11am. A total of $20,000 in matching
funds have been made available to Reiser Relief Inc. for support of
short-term relief and long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. on Feb 3rd 11am cst Click to Donate "Haiti-Match-For-Reiser-Relief"
ABC
Newspaper article "Matching
funds
doubles
relief
in
Haiti" for
full story.
by Sue Austreng
Staff writer: - Reiser Relief, Inc. invites the community
to maximize its giving for Haiti earthquake relief efforts by
participating in a $20,000 matching funds event. Beginning at 11 a.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 3, online credit card donations will be matched dollar
for dollar until the matching funds are exhausted.
THE LATEST ON THIS
EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENTARY EFFORT TO COLLECT 10,000 PHOTOS
By Bonnie
Fournier, Project Photographer - The Smooch! Project
Haiti:
A
Tragedy
We
Can
All
Do
Something
About. When a cataclysmic
event like the earthquake in Haiti occurs, we are all of course moved
to help but unsure how to do so. At least that is how we felt here at
The Smooch! Project. We considered putting on a fundraiser ourselves
but a quick search online revealed that there were more than 500
similar efforts already. The Smooch! Project is a community-building
effort in its own way and we wanted to put our resources to work in
support of the cause in Haiti, but quickly realized we didn't need to
do that from scratch. Instead, we decided the best choice would be to
align ourselves with an existing non-profit that already has a good
history of service in Haiti. Our choice: Reiser Relief, a
Minnesota-based organization founded by a retired charismatic Roman
Catholic priest who visited Haiti in the 1990s and was moved to work to
relieve the suffering he saw there. We believe in this organization and
strongly encourage your donation (no percentage of these funds will go
The Smooch! Project). If you act NOW, your online donation will be
matched dollar-for-dollar! Simply click
here to DOUBLE your donation. A great big SMOOCH! to all so moved.
[Full Story]
GIVE CHANGE TO
CHANGE HAITI - Sand Creek Elementary
12156 Olive Street NW
Coon Rapids, MN 55448-2148 - Excerpts from the Feb 3rd
Monthly Newsletter
On behalf of the staff at Sand Creek, thank you for your generosity and
empathy shown during the week of January 19-22, when our school
community rallied around a school project entitled, "Give Change to
Change Haiti." During just four days of school, our students and
staff contributed pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to help the
victims of the earthquake in Haiti. We were shocked and amazed
when the grand total climbed to $2,125.00. We commend our
students and applaud this school community for its selfless
giving. Thank you to all those who participated! The money
raised will be given to Reiser Relief, a local organization.
UPDATE
- 2/2/2010
Reiser Relief Inc.
donates $10,000 to Feed My Starving Children. President
and
Founder, Father Bernard Reiser presented a check on February 2, 2010 to
Mark Crea, Feed My
Starving Children (FMSC) Executive Director.
Recent donations made to Reiser Relief is being used to send immediate
relief to children in Haiti suffering with diarrhea. FMSC has an
exclusive one of a kind formula designed specifically for people with
diarrhea, particularly children under two years old. The
food
packet
is
called
the MannaPack
Potato, a fortified potato and soy protein meal package that costs
13 cents. The $10,000 donation will pay for 76,923 meals of
MannaPack Potato for Haiti. The MannaPack potato is a 'first food'
designed specifically for malnourished children with diarrhea.
Diarrhea is the number 1 cause of death of malnourished children.
Feed My Starving Children's original rice-based formula MannaPack
Potato is produced by volunteers. The food-packing process offers a
tangible service opportunity for children and adults and adds a human
touch to the international food aid. To schedule a volunteer time visit
www.mnsc.org. In 2008, more than 310,000 volunteers joined FMSC
to package 73.6 million meals for children around the world, and in
2009 19 million more meals were produced than in 2008. [slide
show]
UPDATE
-
1/31/2010
We have received
word, that Reiser Heights school in the mountains of Lespinasse
is still standing, but unknown if any structural damage is present. It
also has been reported that several families have lost their homes
in the area.
UPDATE
-
1/29/2010
Though some of the
walls of Grace Village had collapse, the workers are starting to raise
new walls from the rubble and putting the Reiser Relief dump truck to
good use.
UPDATE
-
1/28/2010
 We
are
grateful
for
the
response
received
and
continue
to
ask
for
your
prayers
for
the
people
of
Haiti.
The
people in water lines are more
orderly, for the water trucks are a sign of hope, for it provides sense
of assurance since the water trucks keep on returning.
Both water trucks in action through the generous
donors, who made it possible to bring additional relief during this
catastrophe. The first truck is delivering water bucket by bucket
directly to the people in Cite Soleil, the second truck has routes to
fill cisterns for orphanages, schools, medical clinics and emergency
relief to the displace families now living in so many tent camps
in Port au Prince.
Destruction is all-round the water truck routes;
concrete and steel re-bar and so many makeshift tents everywhere. The
sounds of helicopters overhead bringing relief supplies amidst the mass
destruction is also a good sign for all people,  but
relief
and
supplies
must
continue.
Another
concern
is
the
rainy
season
is
not
far
off
and
there
will
be
a need for permanent shelters for all
the people soon. During the water-log months, brings
fears of waterborne diseases for the hundreds of thousands still living
in squatter settlements.
There is extensive
damage at the orphanage operated by
Missionaries of Charity, the order that Mother Teresa founded.
The
courtyard has been
setup with a makeshift emergency room and patient room using blue tarps
providing shade for
many injured laying on cots and gurneys. The clinic is ran by
doctor from Ireland. For safety reasons, the sick
and abandoned babies
and children have been moved outside into the church yard. Reiser
Relief helps with various needs for the sisters.
Reiser Relief Inc. volunteers at Feed My Starving
Children to help package food at Feed My
Starving Children, located in Coon Rapids, MN. See
ABC Newspaper article "Community
responds
to
Haitians’
urgent
need
for
food" for full story.
UPDATE
-
1/24/2010
In
October through December 2009 the new Grace Village foundations and
concrete walls were put in for the girls dormitory, boys dormitory,
feeding center and cistern. After the earthquake some of the
walls suffered damage. The first picture
below was from December and the other two are after the earthquake.
UPDATE
-
1/23/2010
1/23/2010
Reiser
Relief
Inc.
Water delivery trucks bringing water to
the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Jeff Gacek, director of Reiser Relief
Haiti programs:
Jeff indicated that last night as they dropped off
patients at a
refugee camp that had been treated and released. He stated, we
were
brought from tent to tent and shown babies that were running high
fevers. The paramedics from New York said the children were dehydrated
and needed water badly and they knew I had a water truck and asked me
if I could get our water truck there first thing in the morning.
This morning, bright and early, we showed up at the
[refugee] camp. It
is incomprehensible, how many people are living in makeshift tents and
how they can live there. The camps are everywhere. They have absolutely
no services... no water, no food, no sanitary, nothing, the conditions
are horrible. The tents are hot, dust everywhere, flies everywhere. I
saw a plate of garbage put out in the isle between tents... it was
meant to attract the flies so they do not land on the people as they
slept.
I was only able to
get a few photos because I was needed to deliver water.
Later in the
day, we made an emergency water run deep
into the capital of Port-au-Prince. There is a small clinic a few
blocks from the [Presidential] Palace that Kevin [Kevin McClellan/Water
Project Coordinator] had promised water. The drive downtown was
overwhelming. The damage was everywhere, there's so much of it. I
think I'm becoming numb... there's just too much.
UPDATE
-
1/21/2010
The focus is on food and water
delivery. Food is being purchased in markets that have started to
run again, though local prices are much higher. This will provide a
ready to eat nutritious meal of fresh fruit, vegetables, and salted
fish for protein as well as financially supporting the Haitian
community. FIMA has distributed
1,000 meals this morning to Titanyen.
Both
water
trucks are up and running and delivering to many people who
are now homeless and are living on the ground with plastic sheets held
up by sticks for cover. At this time it is too dangerous for the
water trucks to resume the normal schedule and route and method of
bucket-to-bucket daily deliveries, but know your funds keeps these
trucks moving. Fuel cost has been around $20 per gallon and
harder to come by, but it’s is cheap, considering the amount of water
that is brought to all the people who are homeless. (3,500 gallons for
a load of water)
The initial checks of the Terre
Promise
Primary
School appears good and sound, just a few
minor things and the children are alive and the school director and
founder Elder Morland is alive as well. With your help, Reiser Relief
can provide for them; as you can imagine, life is now even tougher.
With current local
conditions it is not possible to travel up in the mountains to Les
Pinasse and check on the conditions at Reiser
Heights
School, which is normal about 2 hours away of Port au Prince.
- Immediate need is water, food, and
shelter.
- Since the Port-au-Prince shipping ports are
down, we are not focusing on shipping container at this
time.
- Reiser Relief also worked with Feed My
Starving Children (FMSC) in Coon Rapids, MN and helped packed
21,600
meals, which will feed 59 kids for an entire year! This food
will be sent to
Haiti. The meals—called MannaPack Rice Meals— vegetarian meal in a bag
that you add water to and they provide complete nutrition, with
vegetables, broth, fortified rice and
soy protein. Feed My Starving Children has been sending these meals to
Haiti for several years and already have organized efforts and staff
living there to get food to people who need it desperately. It's all
possible through thousands of volunteers and donors! Volunteers pack
100 percent of the food, with each meal costing only 17 cents to
produce. With 94 percent of total FMSC donations going directly to its
feeding program, donations of all amounts go a long way in fighting
hunger!
- 100% of donations is being sent to Haiti for
our program in an effort to ease their tragic conditions.
- God Bless you for your help in "keeping the water flowing" to this
poor devastated country.
UPDATE
-
1/19/2010
Jeff Gacek, director
of
the
Reiser
Relief
Haiti
programs
has
made
it
safely
to
Haiti
and
is
able
to
get
around
by
motorcycle. He will further
assist the ground personnel concerning the projects and identify the
areas of need.
Fuel is becoming hard to find and even
pre-sold. Fuel
is
in short supply and prices are climbing, $20 a
gallon; and Jeff had to plead with a gas station owner to let him
purchase 20 gallons of diesel for the water truck and only got a yes,
when he agreed to deliver water to their home.
Jeff sleeps out side under the stars with many
others. Ed Lord should
be there tonight.
Kevin McClellan/Water Project Coordinator has been
able to get fresh
water from the normal deep well and is delivering needed water to
orphanages. The second water is almost ready to be put into
service.
Orphanage and kids in Titanyen are fine. School in
Titanyen is in ruins
and community is desperate for food and water.
The new
concrete block walls that were laid before the earthquake have fallen
for the new Grace Village
project in Titanyen.
Banking communication system down which means no
wire transfers from
families to loved ones in Haiti, cash is needed to buy everything.
We have not been able to get a hold of our
orphanages contacts contacts at Terre Promise
Primary School in Cite Soleil, which is a very densely populated shanty
town located in Port-au-Prince. Also no word from Reiser Heights School
personnel located in Les Pinasse. Between the orphanages and schools
that is over 1500 children and staff.
MONEY/FOOD/WATER is top of the list. - Thank
you
for
all
those
who
have
given
so
generously.
God
has
given
us,
who
have
so
much,
an
opportunity
to
serve
“the
least
of
these”.
UPDATE
-
1/15/2010
The Lewer Agency selects Reiser Relief Inc.
in response to the Haiti catastrophe.
The Lewer Agency has
allotted $500 in Lewer Charitable Funds (LCF) for
the Reiser Relief Inc. effort in Haiti. Lewer employees who wish to
become involved in the Haiti relief effort are welcome to apply for the
Winter 2010 LCF amount of $500, and use the $500 to organize a
fundraiser. One hundred percent of funds raised by Lewer go to Haiti.
As Reiser Relief has been operating in Haiti for nearly 15 years, it is
believed that the organization is well-positioned to provide immediate
and on-site assistance to victims. [FULL
STORY]
Reiser Relief Inc. is one of 20 US nonprofits that Razoo have initially
selected to be part of the Razoo’s
Match
for
Haiti
campaign. Through the generosity of
Foundation and Corporate partners, Razoo is able to offer a 100% match
on eligible contributions through Razoo's special match weblink below.
[FULL
STORY]
Emergency
Haiti
Earthquake
Relief
Urgently
Needed!
January
2010
1/13/2010
The quake struck shortly before 5 p.m on January 12, 2010 and was
centered about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Many
of Reiser Relief projects are so close to this epicenter.
A 7.0 earthquake has hit the poorest country in the western hemisphere
taking a toll on a country that is just recovering from the four
hurricanes that devastated the western coast of Haiti in September 2009.
1/14/2010 - Jeff Gacek director of our Haiti
programs
has
been
able
to
talk
with Kevin McClellan
(coordinator of the fresh
water
project) shortly after the earthquake
and who was en route from Grace Village in Titanyen
to
Port
au
Prince
and
stated
there
were
many
collapsed
houses
along
the
road.
He
had
heard
of
one
house
it
collapsing
killing
the
occupant.
Kevin stated "I was OK and
unhurt". He told us there was a lot of houses completely
destroyed in
Titanyen and cracks in the new highway being built on the west cost of
Haiti. I don't think Kevin understood the extent of
destruction in Port au
Prince and became concerned about getting back to his house to check on
his daughter. We have been unable to reach him since then. We
were unable to make contact with any of our other staff through the
night of the quake.
This morning, director Jean Fils-Aime said his house had collapsed, but
his family are alright. Jean had talked to Guilluame at our orphanage
in Cite Soleil and was told that the 30 children were "OK", he said
one child was injured and taken to the hospital but will be "OK".
We have not been able to get a hold of Yvon at our orphanage in
Titanyen and have no information at  this time on the 23 orphaned
children there. We also have not heard from Fanfan or Elder Morland and
thus we have no information on Terre Promise Primary School
in Cite
Soleil, which
is a very densely populated shanty town
located in Port-au-Prince.
We have not been able to get a hold of the director
from our orphanage in Titanyen so we have no word on the 23 children
there. We also have been unable to contact our Elder-Care director or
the directors of the school in Cite Soleil or Lespinasse so we have
no
word. I have tried multiple ways and have called hundreds of times
today but with no success.
Jeff Gacek - This is so much worse that we could have
ever imagined and the information we continue to receive is not
getting any better. This is truly an unbelievable event that we still
cannot comprehend.
Before the quake, only 30% of the people in Haiti had access to clean
drinking water and now there is even less water available. We are also
working with Feed My Starving Children
to ship an emergency container of food to Haiti.
We were able to talk with Joyce at Mother Teresa's Orphanage and she
said they had damage, but the babies were all moved outside and spent
the night outside. She said the guest house is still standing, but is
severely damaged. She said Father Tom's house collapsed and he was
injured but will be "OK".
We have one fresh water truck staffed and will be
running again when
the roads are passable and we have second water truck that was shipped
down last year that we want to put into service and are
in need of funds to bring this truck out of "moth
balls". We are also deploying
our dump-truck and Bobcat to help with all the
devastation.
We hope to hear more from our Reiser Relief staff in Haiti, but as you
can imagine, so many buildings, roads and communications are down.
We are asking all our friends, families and supporters to please pray
for Haiti. Pray for strength, pray for healing, pray for mercy, pray
for relief. Pray that God uses this horrible situation to shine His
light on the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Pray that
through their suffering, God will provide hope and a future for the
people of Haiti.
We are in desperate need for additional support and ask that you will
consider a sacrificial gift for the least of these. All donations are
tax deductible and can be made online
or by mail at Reiser Relief Inc 1800-111th Ave NW APT 320 Coon Rapids,
MN 55433 - mail-in-donation-form
Many
companies
support
employee
philanthropy
by
offering
matching
gift
programs.
By
taking
advantage
of
your corporate matching gift program,
you can maximize the value of your gift at no additional cost. Please
check with your HR department to see if your employer will match your
gift to Reiser Relief Inc.
Razoo and GiveMN has
placed
Reiser Relief on their home-pages
as featured Haiti project, in
supporting the people of Haiti affected by the
earthquake.
Thank you for
all of your support and prayers
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Please know that your donations are
handled with great care!
©2008
Reiser Relief Inc.
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