Campaign gives advance share to Red Cross for hurricane relief

Rachel Wolff Editor in Chief

Only a week into the Community Works campaign, Vassar College has already received over $10,000 in donations and gifts. One of the first actions taken by the Community Works Committee was to cut a $7,000 check to Red Cross. The money, donated to the local Dutchess County chapter of Red Cross, is earmarked for hurricane relief. The College also decided to match that amount, giving another $7,000. This additional money will be sent directly to Dillard University, a historically black college located in New Orleans.

The money that was donated to the local Red Cross chapter, located on Hooker Avenue, will go directly towards aiding Gulf Coast evacuees. Upon doing some research, Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of the Community Works Committee Andrew Bush discovered that over 50 evacuees had already arrived in the Poughkeepsie area as a result of the storm. In addition, the Dutchess County chapter was facing the possibility of needing to relocate somewhere between 250 and 1,000 more people in the coming weeks.

“The director of the Red Cross indicated that if a significant number of people came, it would be necessary to set up a shelter specifically for those people…the Dutchess Country chapter could well be largely responsible for aiding those people,” according to Susan DeKrey, Vice President of College Relations.

The original $7,000, composed of gifts to Community Works, is going directly to the Red Cross. This money “was raised during the first few weeks,” said DeKrey. The additional $7,000 matched by the College is going towards rebuilding and reopening Dillard. The donation of these additional funds was also made possible with help from Vassar trustees already involved with Dillard University, mobilizing an additional component of the Vassar community in the campaign. The College is working to contact those at Dillard to determine how best to use the money.

DeKrey is encouraged by the already positive response to the campaign. “We are really encouraging people to be as generous as possible…We have a large goal and we feel we can meet it,” she said. “The Red Cross director was so excited about getting the check so fast.”

A discussion with the director of the Poughkeepsie Red Cross made clear the desire of the Community Works campaign to balance local and national concerns.

The director proposed that he would earmark all of both Community Works and Vassar’s contributions exclusively for hurricane relief, and he added that he would specify that our gift would be used for local operations, so the Vassar campaign knows exactly where their donations are going.

“As hard pressed as any not-for-profit, and more, with all the demands of hurricane relief,” Bush stated in an e-mail, referring to his meeting with the local Red Cross director. “When I said that we expected that we could bring him a check for $7,000 by next week, he said, ‘There's my shelter.’”