NH BUSINESS LEADER ERIC HERR SPEAKS AT RED
CROSS ANNUAL MEETING
Concord, NH, Wednesday, June 24, 2009
– The Annual Meeting of the
Granite Chapter and the New Hampshire Regional of the American Red
Cross was held last Thursday on the grounds of the Bridges House,
the historic NH Governor’s mansion.
The keynote speaker was Eric Herr who
has held senior level executive and consulting positions in
industry-leading organizations, including Autodesk, Inc. and Sun
Microsystems. He also has experience with the American Red Cross as
Volunteer National Chair for Programs and Services. He has served
two NH governors and chaired a commission on IT strategy for the
operation of the State government.
Herr spoke at the meeting of the
important partnerships for carrying out the mission of the Red
Cross. During the response to Katrina and other hurricanes in the
Gulf Coast, the Red Cross and its partners pre-positioned critical
supplies which provided significant help to hurricane victims. He
also spoke of the responsibilities of all those responding to a
disaster, including constituents, donors and clients. Herr commended
Red Cross volunteers and staff as a great team of people with a good
infrastructure that can provide necessary and efficient response to
the public during dire times.
The event included a business meeting
and election of a new Granite Chapter board.
About 50 people attended the annual
meeting despite the wet weather. The meeting was sponsored by the
following business partners: NH Local Government Center; Cleveland,
Waters & Bass, P.A.; Northeast Delta Dental; Combined Services LLC;
New London Hospital; and MetroCast.
Eric Herr speaking at the Annual Meeting of the Granite Chapter and
the NH
Regional Office. |
RED CROSS RECONNECTS FAMILY OF WOLFEBORO
RESIDENT
Concord, NH,
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 –
At 85, you’d think Eugenia Kawczak of Salem, NJ, would have many fond memories
of her sister, Melania Babenko. But she has not seen her sister since 1943 when
Nazis abducted Kawczak from their rural Ukraine home and sent her to a German
forced-labor farm.
In the chaos after World War
II, the sisters never regained contact. Kawczak did not even know if Babenko had
survived the war. She finally gave up hope of seeing her again.
In the Ukraine, Babenko was
also wondering. In 2008, she contacted the Ukrainian Red Cross in a last attempt
to locate her sister. The Ukrainian Red Cross found that Kawczak had emigrated
to the U.S. when a NH State Senator, Benjamin C. Adams (1953-1960, Derry)
brought her, then a single mother with two small children, to NH as an au pair
for his children.
In March at the Granite
Chapter, Kay Mahoney, Disaster Response Coordinator, received a letter from Red
Cross International Services asking for help in finding Kawczak’s relatives in
New Hampshire. After much searching, Kay located Kawczak’s son, Stanley
Pasternak, in Wolfeboro. At first he thought the call was a scam, but soon
realized the importance of the news.
The Red Cross Salem County
Chapter in NJ got involved and officially notified Kawczak of the good news
about her sister. After so many years of separation, Kawczak immediately called
Babenko in the Ukraine. This week (June 11), Kawczak, her daughter and a Red
Cross representative will travel to the Ukraine to see Babenko - the first time
in more than 66 years.
“I am so excited for our
mother,” Pasternak said. “She has had only me and my sisters as family., Knowing
her sister is alive, she is now like a little kid.”
The Granite Chapter and other
Red Cross chapters can help reconnect families separated by war or disaster
through the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement—the world’s
largest humanitarian network. For more information, call the Chapter at
1-800-464-6692.
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Kay and
Stanley go over the Red Cross papers that helped reconnect his
family |
Eugenia (facing camera) hugs her
sister after 66 long years.
(Photo: Aleksandr Kozachenko) |
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