Archive for the ‘Deployment/Missions’ Category
Friday, May 7th, 2010
We would like to share with our members a tribute bestowed on our organization. On April 19, 2010, the United States Ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, met with the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 teams working in Haiti and was given a tour of several ongoing projects. He presented the members of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 with a proclamation thanking us for all that we have accomplished in helping the people in that country after the tragic earthquake of January 12, 2010.
Among our many achievements in Haiti are four H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 initiatives that have been successfully completed.
1. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 immediately deployed to Haiti to participate in the Rescue and Recovery after the devastating earthquake in January that saw over 330, 000 people killed.
2. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members went back to Haiti to the Jesuit Novitiate and completed a project that saw the Novitiate’s damaged water supply structure demolished and a new system installed. They also stabilized several buildings that were uninhabitable and made them once again livable. Providing suitable housing for staff and students allows the Jesuits to continue their mission of training the native Haitian novitiates who will then go out into the various Haitian communities.
3. At the request of the Love-A-Child Orphanage, H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 sent a team that built over one hundred desks and benches and chalkboards for the use in their on-site school so that they could resume the education of the people living there. Adjacent to the orphanage, they also constructed X-ray tables and hospital beds at the temporary hospital facility run by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 volunteers built a drainage system to divert the runoff in the area that surrounds the hundreds of tents that are used as makeshift hospital rooms. With the onset of the rainy season and the beginning of this year’s hurricane season, this project was needed to avoid potential further destruction to an already decimated people.
4. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 teams incorporated local workers whenever possible and taught them the needed skills to complete these projects. These Haitians can now take the newly acquired knowledge and teach others. This is in keeping with the mission statement of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 that by sharing our knowledge and experience with those we help, they in turn will continue to help others.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
(You can view the document below)
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
On Wednesday, February 23, 2010, the Police Surgeons Benevolent Association, a group of professionals in the medical community who are dedicated to the support and advancement of local law enforcement (www.psbainc.com), recognized H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 for its immediate response to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in January. Individual plaques were presented to the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members who took part in the week long Haiti Rescue Mission, which was made possible thanks to the support and backing of Jefferies and Company, by PSBA President Neil J. Dash, MD, Executive Vice President Cary S. Pollack, MD, and Secretary William P. Fenty, DCH.
PSBA Medical Representative Victor Politi, MD, a H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 member who serves as H.E.A.R.T. 9/11’s Medical Director, had previously told his colleagues about H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 and its mission statement. He notified them of the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Haiti deployment and kept them apprised of its progress and successful outcome. Dr. Politi also explained about the plans for continued assistance and deployments back to the ravaged country. It was for these reasons that the board of the Police Surgeons Benevolent Association voted to recognize H.E.A.R.T. 9/11.
 Bill Keegan and John Viola
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 President Bill Keegan and executive board member, John Viola, presented H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 golf shirts to the Police Surgeons Benevolent Association as a token of their thanks and appreciation for the honor bestowed on our group. Following the award ceremony members of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 and the Police Surgeons Benevolent Association came together to discuss the Haiti deployment and share information on the devastating conditions in Haiti and of the needs of the Haitian people.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Friday, February 19th, 2010
On Wednesday, February 17, 2010, International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Ironworkers Union Local 272 President John Becton met with
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members at the local 272, Fort Lauderdale, Florida headquarters. Present also was H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 member Eddie Jorge, who is the Greater New York & vicinity Ironworkers District Council Organizer. Local 272 business manager, Dewey Tyler and several union members joined the group. They presented H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Board of Directors member John Moran with a check representing the union members desire to help victims of the Haitian earthquake through H.E.A.R.T. 9/11.
Left to Right: HEART 9/11 Members Tony Sanpietro, Kevin O’Rourke, John Moran,
Union Member Johnson Darius and Local 272 President John Becton
Ironworkers Local 272, which covers much of southern Florida, is comprised of many Haitian-Americans and there is a strong connection with the island nation. After hearing about the work that the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Haiti Rescue Team Mission did in Haiti immediately following the tragedy from their New York metropolitan area brothers (some of whom were actually part of the rescue team), the membership decided they wanted to partner with H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 for future deployments. The union fully supports this coalition, as does H.E.A.R.T. 9/11. Bringing these skilled workers into our group is an example of ensuring continued growth and expands the total effectiveness of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 as a positive force in disaster response. The plight of the Haitian people will continue for months and, maybe, years. Together we will return to be part of the rebuilding process and bring help and hope to the people of Haiti, especially Port Au Prince.
We wish to thank all involved who brought this alliance about and extend special thanks to the officers and members of the Ironworkers Union, Local 272, for their generosity and support.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Friday, February 12th, 2010
She’s finally home! Immacula Brunette exited the US Customs station at Logan Airport, Boston, Mass., to the sounds of her name being called and the outstretched arms of her children. Immacula, a fifty-three year old mother of six, had been missing in Haiti for almost three weeks following the catastrophic earthquake which killed ten of thousands of people and left so many more injured and homeless. Immacula found herself in this sea of chaos trying to return home to Connecticut as the authorities at the US Embassy in Port Au Prince, Haiti and at the Haitian Airport refused her entry based on her legal status of Permanent Resident of the United States. The only contact she had with her loved ones back in the states was a cryptic phone call placed from the Haiti Airport the day after the deadly earthquake telling her family she had survived.
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After numerous attempts to secure assistance from local and national political and military sources, Immacula’s children reached out for help from a friend in Newark N.J. who is a board member of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11. He knew that H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 was boots on the ground in Haiti and he provided them with Bill Keegan’s contact information. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 had already established lines of communication with US AID, U.S. Customs, T.S.A., U.S. Embassy personnel, the US Marine Corps and the US Air Force.
A “needle in a haystack” search began at the Haiti airport area by H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members who had driven into Haiti; another H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 group who had flown into the American Embassy area searched for her from there. Despite their focused searches, Immacula was not located and the worst was feared. On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the members of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team Haiti returned home without any word about Immacula.
On Friday, January 29, 2010, Bill Keegan received a phone call from a very excited friend of the Brunette family, Jordan Schneider, who had received word that Jim Brunette, Immacula’s son, had heard from his mom. She was near the Haiti Airport, but confused, frustrated and alone. Bill Keegan notified his H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 contacts in the Dominican Republic who then provided the U.S Marine Corps personnel detached to U.S. Embassy in Haiti with Immacula’s last known location and a lifeline cell phone number. Here come the Marines. Within hours Immacula was located and brought to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti where her emotional journey morphed from fear and confusion to smiles and order. Within hours of her rescue, Immacula was on her way to the safety of a HEART 9/11 friend’s home in the Dominican Republic There she received some good old American TLC. A warm shower and a hot meal were accompanied by the smiling faces of Americans serving citizens in a foreign land.
If not for the intervention and efforts of the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team leading the way, Immacula might still be wandering the streets of Haiti. They had deployed to Haiti to provide aid to that devastated country in whatever way they could. This was just one of the positive achievements that were accomplished. The professionalism with which the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Team members conducted themselves while interacting with the established resources in the Dominican Republic and Haiti set them apart from other volunteer responders. Our credibility was immediately recognized and expertise and competence in the area of disaster response quickly utilized.
A JOB WELL DONE!!!
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Saturday, January 30th, 2010
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11′s ” Mission Haiti” Response Team has returned from its first international deployment. We are proud that within days of the catastrophe, H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 was able to respond to this disaster and able to integrate with other first line response organizations, including U.S. AID (United States Agency for International Development), The U.S. Department of State (US Embassy) and established medical relief teams. As with many disaster responses, we were uplifted by our successes, but frustrated by the faces of those survivors that we could not touch. Our team distinguished itself in the family of response groups and is well positioned for future responses with the mission of secondary recovery, as the controlled demolition progresses in Haiti.
Despite their extraordinary losses, the people of Haiti are resilient. They will recover and move towards a new day of new dreams and peace. Thanks tothe financial support and backing of Jefferies & Co, as well as other contributors, H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 is poised to be a part of that recovery. We will build on the lessons and experiences learned from this mission and use these positive achievements to insure that H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 will carry out its goal of healing ourselves by providing aid to others in a disaster situation.
A special thank you must go out to the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 President Bill Keegan and the “Mission Haiti” Team members. They dropped everything in their busy lives and left their families behind to respond to a dangerous theater of devastation, earthquake aftershocks and the inherent dangers present in a chaotic foreign land.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Bill Keegan, president of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11, is leading our first H.E.A.R.T 9/11 Haiti Relief Mission team and reports they arrived in Santo Domingo on Wednesday and began to make the necessary arrangements to get into Haiti. Today an advance team left for the devastated areas in Haiti to determine how our group could best get immediate help to the people. From their on the scene reports, there is so much that has to be done. They have already utilized their medical supplies and given aid to those they have encountered.
Bill wishes to thank all of our members for their support and prayers. He also wants to let those benefactors from Jefferies & Company, Inc, who made this deployment possible, know that the both he and the Haitian people appreciate their generosity.
We will continue to bring you updates from our team as the mission progresses.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
A team of twenty from H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 will be responding to take part in the relief effort in earthquake-ravaged Haiti on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. They will land in Santo Domingo and use that as a jumping off point to Haiti. Our members will join in the herculean task of helping that devastated country. They have medical supplies and expertise that are so badly needed in this decimated area.
We have received a tremendous response from our members to our request for participation in a relief mission. The first deployment will see a team of twenty volunteers from H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 evaluate the situation and begin to help in whatever tasks are required. There will be more relief missions in the future in a continuing effort to have H.E.A.R.T. 9/11?? be a positive force in this relief effort.?? Our thanks go out to all and we ask for your continued support and prayers. H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 will be able to help those in need because we have received tremendous support and funding from the benevolence of Jefferies & Company (Jefferies is an independent, full-service securities and investment banking firm serving companies and their investors globally. Check out this article from their website at: Jefferies - Haiti Relief News Story). We thank them as well.
Hopefully, there will be updates from wherever the team is and we ask that you will go to our website at: www.HEART911.org
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
Once again, the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 membership has demonstrated the “can do” spirit that has defined us since our inception and was the impetus for our organizing. The response has been overwhelming and the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Executive Board thanks you all. As we watch the video reports emanating from Haiti, we are moved to action. The pictures of helpless family members camped in front of a pile of debris, which hides their loved ones, bring us back to images from our own recent past. But there are times when good intentions and the overwhelming desire to “do something” is an impediment to the first line professional Search & Rescue teams and ultimately hurts those we want to help. Our colleagues of NYTF-1 are on the ground and our federal friends stationed in the Dominican Republic are reporting that a mountain of supplies without a delivery strategy will soon strangle supply lines. Groups arriving without authorization or mission orders will siphon resources without providing necessary services and will burden the already stressed response community.
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members are critical incident response experts and we will respond when our services are requested and the mission defined. We will be guided by the first rules of emergency response, do no further harm, don’t add to the chaos be part of the solution not the problem. The tragedy in Haiti regrettably will be with us for many weeks and months to come; H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 will respond and will make a difference. Drawing from our experiences in dealing with such a cataclysmic situation, we have developed a unique overview of the coordinated and sustained effort that is needed to respond to such a crisis event.
The H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 Executive Board understands that our membership wants to somehow make things better for the Haitian community. You CAN help the victims of this unimaginable devastation in a practical and meaningful way by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to make a contribution to H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 and become part of our team. Please direct them to WWW.HEART911.ORG and click on Donate or send checks payable to: HEART 9/11 at 614 Frelinghuysen Ave. Newark, NJ 07114.
Please, as you pray for the earthquake victims and their families, keep our NYTF-1 friends and all the first responders in your thoughts.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 joins the world in our expression of grief for the people of Haiti and their families here in the USA as they struggle with an unimaginable loss. We know there are no words that will comfort the survivors as they await news regarding the welfare of their loved ones. But we can offer the assistance of the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 disaster response experts. This morning as the level of destruction and the human suffering grew, the Executive Board of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 decided to extend our area of response beyond our national borders to include our international neighbors. Towards that end, we have contacted a number of international aid organizations and government agencies to offer a twenty person team of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members to assist in the disaster relief.
At this time, because of the on-site challenges, all organizations have been asked to stand down while the military and two select U.S.A.R. teams assess the most pressing needs. Because the situation is fluid, we are asking H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 members to monitor the broadcast news and look for our updates regarding our anticipated deployment. At that time, we will provide you with the necessary medical clearance requirements and when to pick up your uniforms, equipment and safety gear.
The Staff at H.E.A.R.T. 9/11
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