HAWAIIAN GARDENS – One of America’s biggest donors in humanitarian efforts, The Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation, made a generous donation on Thursday, November 21 to the American Red Cross for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.

Sal Flores, a representative from the foundation, presented a check amounting to $100,000 Donya Webb, Director of Development for the American Red Cross (Greater Long Beach Chapter).

“We’re very grateful for this generous donation because the need is huge over there [in the Philippines],” Webb said.

“The [typhoon victims] are going to need a lot of help getting their lives back together after this. So, we’re so grateful for [the foundation’s] passion for the people over there,” she added.

According to Webb, aside from the initial $11 million that the American Red Cross has already sent to the Philippine relief efforts, there is also a huge groundswell of support from various communities.

“The people have been very generous,” Webb said.

She said that in the Long Beach area alone, there have been many schools doing fundraisers with their students, and churches coming up with various programs to raise more support for the Philippines.

“People have been very compassionate, and that’s the great thing,” she added.

Linda Suniga, an administrative analyst at the City of Hawaiian Gardens, attended the presentation ceremony held at the Foundation’s state-legislated Bingo Club in this city.

“We’re so proud to hear that [the foundation] is doing that for the Philippines, especially with the disaster. With the casualties there, it’s really needed,” Suniga said.

According to Flores, the Foundation has been in touch with Cerritos Mayor Pro Tem Mark Pulido, who himself is organizing relief efforts within his own jurisdiction.

“We hope that this will be a small token of our appreciation for the Filipino community in Southern California that comes to our businesses and helps raise these kinds of funds,” Flores said.

“I wanna thank them. It’s a small way that we can help them, hopefully [sic],” he added.

In recent years, the Moskowitz Foundation has made monetary contributions to various schools and organizations in Hawaiian Gardens and other local communities.

Some of these donations include $1.5 million pledge to the Hawaiian Gardens Sports Center, a $500,000 pledge to the Hawaiian Gardens Library, a $138,000 pledge to the Artesia High School which serves a great number of Hawaiian Garden students, and a $100,000 pledge to the Hawaiian Gardens Elementary School.

Some of the Foundations large donations also went to the victims of Hurricane Katrina (2005), the Haiti earthquake (2010), and the recent earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan (2011).

For more information about the Foundation, you may visit http://www.moskowitzfoundation.org.

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek November 27-29, 2013 Sec A pg.1)