Some members of the SI Sandy Relief Fund visited families and delivered presents to the children on Christmas Eve. 
 
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Ava Opper, a 7 year old girl from Ridgewood, NJ made and sold friendship bracelets to local friends and donated 100% of the profits she earned ($76 bucks) to the families of @SandyFundSI . Ava is pictured above with Nadine, a member of @SandyFundSI. 

 
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VIDEO -- SI Sandy Relief Fund mentioned on Fox News channel Your World with Neil Cavuto on 12/21 -- See Anthony Marotto discuss the situation he and his wife Keri and their family are facing post Hurricane Sandy and how together we are helping to make a difference!!

See full video here - http://video.foxnews.com/v/2050340613001

 
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This is an email from Forest Wolfe a friend of @SandyFundSI. Forest's son Dainan, 5 years old, asked his dad to send this Christmas letter to all of the members of his family this year. Thank you for being so kind Dainan and we hope you have a very Merry Xmas!!

















 
The New York Post was there to cover it all as Ian, Carolyn and Lee from SI Sandy Relief Fund helped Keri, a Hurricane Sandy victim who is due in early January, her 2-year-old daughter Serafina, and her husband Anthony settle into their new apartment just in time for the holidays. See the video below courtesy of the New York Post. 12/18/2012.

 
Ian Neckin (our president) along with our charity and the McKeon family were the focal point of a piece on the Channel 11 news last night.

Our organization has sponsored the McKeon family, who lost their home and possessions in the storm.  You can find out more about their family and how you can help them at our website http://www.sandyfundsi.org/the-mckeons.html

Many thanks to Erik Maschler and the Battleground Country Club for donating a pick-up truck to Mr. McKeon so that he can back to work and provide for his family.  Many thanks to everyone who has made a contribution to help our families. 

 
Date: Thursday, December 6, 2012
Subject: thank you
To: ian@sandyfundsi.org

Words cannot express how grateful we are for everything you have done for us. Without you in our life, I don't know how we would have survived. Thank you for giving us a second chance at life and for helping us to rebuild our lives.To be able to bring the kids back to Staten Island and give them back some sort of normalcy and structure. The boys are back in school, adjusting and smiling again and that is the greatest gift of all, and it wouldn't have happened without your generosity. We have hope now and are forever grateful. After seeing the devastation and listening to people telling us what they are going through we did not know how to begin again, you gave us that chance and we are truly blessed, 

Thank you
Alice, Ed, Eddie and Michael Warmbier
 
Ian Neckin, president of the SI Sandy Relief Fund, was one of the first to contact The Post.

A rep from his family-run nonprofit met with Christian, drove the carless mom over to the hotel and began to search for a new apartment for her family.
 
We have been overwhelmed by the positive response that we have received and the overall sense of charity people have exhibited.  I really want to refrain from naming people specifically (there are simply to many people who have contributed to name them all), but simply wanted to extend special thanks to all of our friends, business partners, families, clients, co-workers and colleagues that have so generously opened their pocketbooks and wallets in the spirit of charity and selflessness.   I also want to specifically acknowledge the efforts of all of the volunteers that comprise our team: Ian, Alishia, Suzanne, Nick, Russ, Lee and of course Carolyn for everything they have done and continue to do to help our families get their lives back in order.

PLEASE KEEP GIVING – ALL DONATIONS, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THE FAMILIES THAT WE ARE HELPING (donate at http://www.sandyfundsi.org)

I wanted to give everyone a sense of where things stand with the organization – we have been at this for a little over 3 weeks now so – we have had our highs and lows as all organizations do as they get going, but I thought I would share a few really great stories and a few successes with the group (of course you can follow most of this on our website and facebook page as well)


** FUNDRAISER ANNOUNCED - 12/8/12 **
December 8 we will be having a fundraiser at George Keeley’s – a bar located in NYC at 485 Amsterdam – from 2:00 – 8:00pm – the owner has committed that all proceeds from the door will go toward our relief efforts (sponsored by Ommegang Brewery and Bluepoint Brewing Co).  Stop by for a beer – our team will be there. You can RSVP and find directions to the event here: http://on.fb.me/Xf0KBJ


Family Updates
  • The Warmbier Family – Our best success story yet – The family, initially displaced off of Staten Island, is now all together living in a new rental in Staten Island.  With the tireless support of the Reinmann family they were able to replace their lost car, help settle into a new apartment, replace most of the necessities that they lost and get back on their feet again.  This is exactly why we started this organization. 
  • The Owens Family – While still living in a shelter (believe me we are working on it – proven harder than we ever thought) we were able to get Ann Owens into a car so she and her daughter could have a little piece of their life back.  We are working on getting the rest of their life back. 
  • Sarwat -  Sarwat and her family should be moved into their new apartment this week – ending 4 weeks of living with family in New Jersey and commuting 45-60 minutes each way to school.  The Guenthers have been extraordinary in their support of Sarwat during their ordeal.  Our organization is ready to get them settled in. 
  • New Families – As word of our organization spreads we get more and more requests for help from families that were affected by the storm.  We have identified two more families that we will be helping and the website will be updated in the next few days with their bios. 
Fundraising highlights 
  • We have raised over $80,000 so far.  We are more than half way to our stated goal of $150,000. 
  •  One young girl, absent any provocation, announced that she would donate half the gifts she received at her bat mitzvah to one of our families.  Remarkable for such a young girl to embrace that spirit of giving
  • One family has asked that people forgo gifts for their one year old and make contributions to our organization instead.
  • We have received contributions from people in Australia, Europe and South America
  • We have gotten contributions from over 200 different people and sources

Check us out below – have a wonderful holiday season – please keep giving.  We will keep working to make sure your charity is put to good use.


The website is http://www.sandyfundsi.org
FB = http://www.facebook.com/pages/SI-Sandy-Relief-Fund/461706437203976
Twitter = @SandyFundSI 


As a reminder you can make a donation to one of our families directly on our website OR you can make a cash contribution by sending a check made payable to “SI Sandy Relief Fund”.  All checks should be mailed to

SI Sandy Relief Fund
c/o Nadine Vaiana
215 Deepbrook Rd.
Wyckoff NJ 07481


Thanks as always for your consideration. 

Brad