During 2008-to present, we deployed to the following 13 locations: Wisconsin (tornado), Tennessee (tornado), Hugo, MN (tornado), Missouri (floods), Iowa (huge floods), Wisconsin (floods), Eastern Texas (Hurricane Ike), North Dakota (floods), Austin, MN (tornado), Plymouth, MN (tornado), Louisville, KY (floods), Atlanta, GA (floods) and Carroll County, Iowa (ice storm).

In our response to these disasters, a total of 1,172 volunteers worked with us and we cleaned and/or cleared debris and fallen trees from a total of 332 structures.

NECHAMA is partnering with Feed My Starving Children to pack up food for the victims in Haiti. You can make this a family experience, bring a friend or just come alone! This will be both rewarding and beneficial to all!
*Volunteers need to wear closed-toed shoes for safety reasons. Volunteers will be handling food ingredients (rice, dehydrated soy, dehydrated vegetables, and flavored vitamin powder). Volunteers should stay at home if they are not feeling well or if they have food allergies.
*Children must be in at least 3rd grade-8th grade must be accompanied by a parent, 5 High students my come with 1 adult (5 to 1 ratio)
*Volunteers with special needs, need to contact Feed My Starving Children ahead of time
Please join us to fill our time slots of 20 people each!
Eagan; 651.379.2775 990 Lone Oak Road, Suite 160, Eagan, MN 55121

Tuesday, March 23, 8-9:30pm 20 slots FILLED
Thursday, March 25 12-2pm 20 slots

Chanhassen: 952.937.2329 18738 Lake Drive East Chanhassen, MN 55317

Tuesday, March 23, 12-2pm 20 slots
Thursday, March 25, 8-9:30pm 20 slots

We are anticipating all slots will fill quickly, so please contact Amy acytron@nechama.org to secure your spot today. Please let us which date and time you want.
Thank you for being part of the NECHAMA team!

IOWA UPDATE 4

Dan Hoeft along with a few key volunteers has been on the ground in the city of Carroll, Iowa. We have been working very closely with the Emergency Managers from that area to clean up all areas that have been affected. Many volunteer fire fighters have been available to help NECHAMA with our efforts.

As of today, many of the work orders have been complete. Dan will be reassessing the Iowa deployment and will know more on Sunday whether NECHAMA will be needed for further work.

Teams are leaving today to travel to the Carroll County area of Iowa to help emergency workers remove downed trees in a wide spread area. Much of this county was affected but luckily most have power restored at this time. More volunteers are leaving through this week for 2-3 nights. If you are interested in volunteering and car pooling, please contact Amy Cytron acytron@nechama.org. Most of the work is chain sawing and removing tree debris from the area.

NECHAMA has pitched in to assist with Haitian Earthquake relief. We have partnered with the American Refugee Committee (ARC) that already has personnel on the ground in Haiti. At the ARC’s request, NECHAMA has donated 17 cases of MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) that will be shipped to Haiti by the ARC to feed the starving population. We have also provided the ARC with the use of our truck and trailer to transport badly needed medical supplies received by the ARC for shipment to Haiti.

NECHAMA is studying a possible deployment to Haiti once the current search and rescue phase of the disaster has concluded. We are investigating an appropriate organization with which we can partner to provide disaster recovery and cleanup services. As you can imagine, given the tremendous size of this disaster, it may be months before a full-fledged cleanup can begin. Healing Hands for Haiti Foundation is one of the organizations with which NECHAMA is partnering to see how we can help.

• Haiti: Gathered information and consulted with Board members and staff regarding the possibility of a response by NECHAMA to the Haitian earthquake. Looked into a possible partnership with an organization with an existing presence in Haiti.
• Fundraising: Met with a Board member regarding possible fundraising contacts & other ideas, worked on a grant request to a vendor, met with our grants consultant regarding applications to foundations, worked to develop a strategy for reaching out more effectively to existing and potential donors.
• Operations and Volunteer activities: Worked to create communications protocols to be used during the early stages of a disaster, worked to improve volunteer recruitment efforts and worked on brochure for NECHAMA’s new training curriculum
• Board & Governance: Prepared materials for the new Board member orientation and for the Board meeting