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DC3 Music Group Mounts Urgent Artist Relief Mission to Haiti

dc3global-300x82Scott Stapp, New Kids on the Block, Creed, Alter Bridge, Tom Morello, Godsmack, Julianne Hough, Eve, David Archuleta and many others help cause to deliver over 10,000 pounds of medical supplies, doctors and staff to earthquake victims…

DC3 Music Group Mounts Urgent Artist Relief Mission to Haiti

When Award-winning director/ producer Daniel E. Catullo III saw news reports of Haiti’s suffering, it wasn’t enough to just pick up the phone and donate money. Instead, the noted concert video producer has spent the past week rallying the music community to mount a million-dollar relief mission poised to depart this week for Port-au-Prince.

On January 27, 2010, through the humanitarian efforts of Catullo’s multi-media company, DC3 Music Group, LLC, an MD-80 aircraft left Long Beach, CA, bound for Port-Au-Prince, ready to provide over 10,000 pounds of medical supplies (donated by MedShare), doctors, and medical staff.

Scott Stapp and the members of Creed, New Kids On The Block, Alter Bridge, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Godsmack, Julianne Hough, Eve, and David Archuleta head the initial wave of musicians helping the cause, with more joining by the moment. Together, they’ve helped the staff of DC3 Music Group raise over $1 million in supplies and donations. The PLANE TO HAITI effort will continue with as many return trips as needed. The Wheelchair Foundation is accepting donations through the mission’s new website, www.planetohaiti.org. No donation is too big or too small.

“I couldn’t just sit there watching anymore,” said Catullo. “So I started calling and e-mailing all of the artists I know and work with and asked for donations and help spreading the word. After five straight 20-hour days, we now have everybody from Scott Stapp to New Kids On The Block to Godsmack helping make this happen. I am so grateful to everybody who stepped up and for the overwhelming amount of support we have received so far. I am pleased to announce that our departure to Haiti with all these supplies is imminent.

“As long as the money and support keeps coming, we will keep the supplies going down. The Wheelchair Foundation is planning many trips to Haiti in the coming months. The need for wheelchairs and medical supplies will not just be this week, but for many, many months. It is quite overwhelming.”

Catullo first teamed with the Wheelchair Foundation in 2004 on a trip to deliver wheelchairs to Panama and has been a huge supporter ever since. It was only natural that he reached out to the organization’s founder, Ken Behring, to partner in PLANE TO HAITI.

“Panama was one of the most amazing experiences I ever have had in my life,” said Catullo. “Giving someone the gift of mobility is life-changing and something that we all take for granted. I am honored to be friends with the Behring’s and everybody involved at the Foundation. They truly are a special bunch of people”

Added Wheelchair Foundation spokesman Jeff Behring: “Our mission to Haiti is about assembling volunteers with a passion to help those in desperate need and then provide. Dan Catullo and his group have been instrumental in assembling this mission and making it happen.”

Scott Stapp was the first musician on board, aligning with “Plane to Haiti” through the With Arms Wide Open Foundation, which brings hope to children “with arms wide open.” Stapp already is on the ground in Haiti awaiting for the arrival of Catullo and the medical supplies. The Creed lead singer is scheduled to return on the “Plane to Haiti” flight back to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday night.

Sully Erna, lead singer of multi-platinum rock band Godsmack, was another early Catullo supporter and has rallied his fans to help raise more money.

“I really care about human lives in general,” said Erna. “A soul is irreplaceable and should never be taken for granted. We’re only here for a blip. And we must cherish this life, because none of us are truly qualified to say whether or not we come back. And even if we do, we don’t know if we’d remember who we were.

And since I can’t be there to help in person, I want to make my contribution as a fellow human being to give what I can while I’m in the fortunate situation that I am to help those that are so unfortunate in this time of tragedy. My heart and prayers go out to all of those families and children that they get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

Morello was next. Though he couldn’t go along for the ride, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist was pivotal in starting a network of e-mails that led to doctors, supplies and donations, including a group of Haitian doctors and nurses headed to Haiti later to stay for up to one month.

Another charity, MedShare (medshare.org), donated over 8,000 pounds of much needed medical supplies for the trip.

“Mr. Catullo was inspired to immediately help bring health and hope to the Haitian people and asked MedShare to collaborate on this important project,” said Chuck Haupt, executive director of MedShare Western Region. “MedShare has a 10-year history of shipping medical supplies and equipment to support non-profits in the country. We were delighted to learn that PLANE TO HAITI was willing to get urgently needed triage supplies flown directly to the Partners In Health hospitals in Port-au-Prince. After a disaster of this magnitude medical supplies are in high demand by caregivers, and MedShare couldn’t be more pleased with partnering with Mr. Catullo and PLANE TO HAITI to help save lives.”

Shortly thereafter, AGP Management, which manages such superstar artists as Godsmack, Creed, Smashing Pumpkins and New Kids On The Block, offered support and rallied its client roster to help. The first act to jump on board was New Kids On The Block. Not only did the multi-platinum group start by making a substantial donation, the members immediately began Twittering fans to get additional donations and other support.

On the ground in Haiti, DC3 has made plans to utilize its skills as video producers to build an infrastructure that will allow people to leave video messages to their loved ones and check in on them. DC3 also will be able to transmit images of Haiti, focusing on areas underserved by the media, and shoot public service announcements to help the Wheelchair Foundation raise additional funds for future shipments. Additionally, the ground team plans to meet with troops and relief workers to help raise morale, and visit the Hands & Feet Project, the orphaned children’s village in Jacmel started by the band Audio Adrenaline. Over 40 computers, two satellite dishes and 100 video cameras have been donated to the ground efforts, made possible through partnerships with CNN, Bing Maps, Kuzzon Media and Wexler Video.

Others involved in the mission include AGP Management, Dr. Nancy Sobel, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Rockpit.com, and Rodney Bowes Design. So far, three charities, 10 companies and 100 people are working together on the mission to get people directly to Haiti to help.

“It’s been an amazing week,” said Catullo. “As a small group of people with a mission we are going to help a lot of people.”

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Donate To Haiti Now!

We need your donations to send 2,000 wheelchairs to Haiti right now. All $75 donations towards Haiti will be MATCHED by the Wheelchair Foundation until enough funds are acquired for 2,000 wheelchairs.  A donation of $75 covers half the cost of one wheelchair, which is valued at $150.  With your donations and our Haiti matching program, we can make a difference together. Wheelchair Foundation is currently sending 560 wheelchairs to partnering aid organizations on the ground in March. The request for wheelchairs has been steady, and rescue efforts and triage of the wounded are revealing a huge need for assistance for those injured in the Haitian Earthquake of January 12th, 2010.

The challenges faced by first responder aid organizations and military have been daunting. Due to the lack of infrastructure and simple supplies, treating the wounded has been make-shift at best. Lack of trained medical personnel, sterile operating environments and sanitary conditions are resulting in frequent amputation of damaged limbs in victims of the quake who can no longer wait for specialized services to treat their wounds.

donate-haitiWheelchair Foundation seeks to provide mobility to those wounded as a result of this great catastrophe. We are working to supply our NGO partners with the wheelchairs they need to serve the wounded they are dealing with now, and those they will be dealing with as this tragedy continues to unfold in the months to come.

Supporters of Wheelchair Foundation know about our long history of responding when the world is in need. Whether providing wheelchairs to Indonesia and Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004, or directly assisting the earthquake victims of Pakistan in 2005, providing more than 3,000 wheelchairs to those wounded and displaced by hurricane Katrina that same year, or assisting with several thousand wheelchairs for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake disaster in China in 2008.

Haiti needs your support now. Please donate generously.

The lack of medical supplies on the ground, mainly antibiotics and antiseptics, is forcing doctors who care for earthquake victims in Haiti to practice hundreds of amputations that would otherwise be necessary, said in a statement Monday Medical world.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Jacques C. surgeon of the French team of the NGO. “Unfortunately, we are having to make numerous amputations every day,” he lamented, noting that “in the coming days we will have to calculate the order of 400”. These operations are due to the serious injury during the earthquake and the inability to treat infections.

donate-haiti

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Craig Family Lands in Haiti

After two weeks of fruitlessly searching for seats on commercial flights, small missionary planes and even cruise ships, Peter and Sara Craig finally landed seats on a private personal jet and touched down safely in Haiti on Saturday.

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Peter Craig and his son Abram pose during their flight to Haiti on Saturday on a private jet owned by the founder of The Wheelchair Foundation. “We might have been the only people flying into Haiti this weekend on a leather couch,” Peter wrote on the family’s blog.

The W.F. West graduates and their two young sons have now begun what they believe will be a years-long effort to bring safe, clean drinking water to the people of this ravaged country through a Christian group called Clean Water for Haiti.

“Our first job here will be learning Creole,” Peter Craig told The Chronicle by e-mail on Sunday. “Beyond that, we’ll be helping with projects and work around the base when we can and learning more about all of the things Clean Water for Haiti does.”

The Craigs were on their way to Florida for a connecting flight to the island nation when the Jan. 12 earthquake hit. They flew back to Portland and have been vainly looking for transportation ever since.

They found success on a plane connected with a charity called The Wheelchair Foundation, which has delivered nearly 1 million wheelchairs around the world.

After learning that they would be able to catch a ride to Haiti with the group, they were surprised to discover that they would be flying not on a cargo plane, but on the founder’s private jet.

In a blog post, Sara Craig credited divine help with connecting them with the group.

“After all of the time we spent making phone calls and sending e-mails to different organizations and getting nowhere, all I can say is I did not make this happen. It was definitely someone bigger than me coordinating all of this,” Sara wrote on the family’s blog,

ourordinaryjourney.blogspot.com.

As they drove from the airport, the Craigs were struck by how many people have been left homeless by the quake and its aftershocks.

Aid groups have been giving out tents, and citizens have been pitching them in any open space they can find.

“Look at the median the next time you are merging onto the freeway and imagine seeing hundreds of people camping there waiting for who knows what,” Peter wrote.

The Craigs are now at their new home in a town about 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince. While the country is struggling, the Craigs said they are blessed with enough food to eat, lodgings undamaged by the earthquake, and a compound electrified by solar and generator power 24 hours a day.

They hope to aid and expand the work of a group that employs Haitians in building and selling simple concrete devices that filter drinking water using bio-sand.

“As we begin this new chapter in our lives, we are overwhelmed by how many things we have to be thankful for,” Peter wrote, “and this is only the beginning.”

SOURCE: Chronline

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Despite recession, locals reach out to Haiti

RICHMOND, CA (KGO) — People all over the Bay Area are doing what they can to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Despite the recession, donations are still pouring in from adults and young people as well.

The Wheelchair Foundation of Danville went beyond its original mission to provide 2,000 wheelchairs for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. It flew in eight tons of medical supplies along with 50 doctors and nurses who gave badly needed surgery to people dying from blood infections caused by blunt trauma.

“We had a couple stay. They didn’t want to come back. You just get so wrapped up and so involved in helping these people and you get so much out of it, you kind of forget about time,” said Jeff Behring with The Wheelchair Foundation.

The foundation is gearing up to deliver another round of supplies and medical aid. The images that Behring witnessed are compelling other groups to go beyond their own means to help.In Richmond, a city that often finds itself in need, people are coming out to give what they can.

Students involved with Richmond’s Police Athletic Club are holding a charity basketball tournament featuring semi-pro teams like the San Francisco Rumble and the Compton Cobras.

“A lot of the kids out here are going through some hard times,” said student organizer Gina Saechao.

Saechao says their own pain is helping fuel the effort to put on this six-day tournament and raise $50,000 for the Red Cross.

“Just because we’re disadvantaged it doesn’t mean that we don’t care,” she said.

“There is yet hope. It’s never too small to dream big,” said basketball charity supporter Richard Foster.

SOURCE: ABC 7 KGO-San Francisco

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Valley Medical Workers Return from Haiti

A group of Valley medical workers is back home after spending four days in Haiti, where they delivered 6,000 pounds of medical supplies and provided aid to people of the devastated country.

The three nurses and one doctor from Selma Community Hospital were part of a mission called “Plane to Haiti,” sponsored by The Wheelchair Foundation.

Wheelchairs are in great need because so many people have had to undergo amputations following a 7.0 earthquake.

The group of nurses said they wanted to help so badly when they reached Haiti but didn’t know where to start. Nurse Jennifer Tarazon said, “It almost at times seemed hopeless because you think, how are they going to recover from this, there’s just so much devastation.”

With no secure building to work in, Nurse Tamara Bryan says they took matters into their own hands. Tamara said, “By the second or third day, we said here’s a field, let’s put a tent up, we made friends with some locals and they said we’ll bring people to you.”

Amazingly, they operated a clinic with no running water. Tamara said, “You just pump hand sanitizer and just put on a new pair of gloves and create equipment with whatever you can and make it happen.”

Nurse Tim Miller remembers a hectic situation in the tent where they were treating about 20 patients at once. Miller said, “You’re running around putting IV and antibiotics in every single one of them.”

Then in came a little boy who could hardly breathe. Miller said, “You’re like, they should be going straight to ICU, but here you are with 20 patients and you have to take care of him too and it’s awesome when they wake up in the morning, look at you and smile and they’re still alive. That feels good.

Jennifer Tarazon’s most memorable moment happened at the university of Miami Medical Center tent. It was sad, yet uplifting. Jennifer said, “There were kids there with no arms, no legs or waiting or their amputation surgery, but they were still smiling, still beautiful and you would give them their medicine or little cookie and they would say merci and it was just very touching.”

The wheelchair foundation plans to deliver 5,000 more wheelchairs to Haiti. These nurses, as well as co-workers at Selma Community Hospital, are planning to take another trip there to help as soon as they are able to raise enough money to pay for the trip.

SOURCE: CBS 47 Fresno

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