Monday, December 19, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Delivering new clothing items for veterans as part of the Holiday for Heroes program.
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 153 adults and 44 children following 59 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Monday, December 12, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Assembly Member Michaelle Solages helps installs free smoke alarms in her Nassau County district.
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 170 adults and 40 children following 55 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Red Cross Response Manger Doran Bercovici gives interview to
CBS NY at the scene of the Hamilton Heights apartment fire.

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 199 adults and 40 children after 50 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Red Cross GNY setting up Shelter for those affected by a fire in Harrison, NY.
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 137 adults and 41 children after 49 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Monday, November 21, 2022

In Case You Missed It


Greenwich Chapter of the National League of Young Men Carwash to help American Red Cross Hurricane Ida relief  

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 149 adults and 40 children after 39 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Monday, November 14, 2022

In Case You Missed It


NYC Mayor Adams spoke at the Women Who Serve America event at Central Park. (Photo: Nathalie Sayago)

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 87 adults and 28 children after 35 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities
  • Now more than ever, dedicated and passionate civic leaders are needed to serve the Red Cross. Apply to begin a full-time AmeriCorps service year with us.
  • Donut wait – donate! The Red Cross is saying thanks a latte for your help: Get a $10 e-gift card to a merchant of your choice when you come to give blood by Nov. 22. Sign up to give now & enjoy this perk: rcblood.org/3SnWCgM

Monday, November 7, 2022

In Case You Missed It


The Red Cross Red Team before the TCS New York City Marathon


Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 119 adults and 32 children for 51 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)


Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Red Cross Volunteers together for the anniversary of Superstorm Sandy
Red Cross Volunteers gathered together to install smoke alarms in Long Beach homes on the anniversary of Superstorm Sandy 

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 104 adults and 27 children for 41 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

In Case You Missed It

The Metro NY home fire team in Mount Vernon
The Metro NY Home Fire Team in Mount Vernon with Board Members for National Fire Prevention Week 

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 129 adults and 41 children for 49 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review 
Upcoming Events and Activities
  • Now more than ever, dedicated and passionate civic leaders are needed to serve the Red Cross. Apply to begin a full-time AmeriCorps service year with us.
  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.
  • Oct 26: Join us for a FREE orientation and learn how you can uncover your inner hero by joining our volunteer team. Multiple opportunities - one lifesaving mission!
  • Oct 28: Join us in Spring Valley at 24 Chestnut St. for a Blood Drive sponsored by Office of NYS Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick from 10:30am – 4:30pm. Register here.
  • Nov 5: Interfaith Blood Drive at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 West Putnam Ave., Greenwich, CT. For an appointment, please visit redcrossblood.org.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Magnolia, a volunteer supporting the damage assessment team for Hurricane Ian in Florida 

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 112 adults and 45 children following 42 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review 

Upcoming Events and Activities: 
  • Now more than ever, dedicated and passionate civic leaders are needed to serve the Red Cross. Apply to begin a full-time AmeriCorps service year with us.
  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.
  • Oct 19, 26: Join us for a FREE orientation and learn how you can uncover your inner hero by joining our volunteer team. Multiple opportunities - one lifesaving mission!
  • Nov 5: Interfaith Blood Drive at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 West Putnam Ave., Greenwich, CT. For an appointment, please visit redcrossblood.org.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

In Case You Missed It

There are more than 100 Red Cross ERVs on the roads in Florida delivery meals and relief supplies to people struggling in hardest hit areas.

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 126 adults and 39 children following 43 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review

Upcoming Events and Activities
  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.
  • Nov 5: Interfaith Blood Drive at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 West Putnam Ave., Greenwich, CT. For an appointment, please visit redcrossblood.org.

Thursday, October 6, 2022

In Case You Missed It


Many local Red Crossers like Caitlin have deployed down to Florida to provide hurricane relief.
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 158 adults and 38 children following 52 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review

Upcoming Events and Activities

  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.
  • BLOOD DONATIONS ARE VITAL for kids fighting cancer, patients waiting for critical surgeries, patients living with sickle cell disease & those who need blood to survive traumatic injuries. Give blood like lives depend on it – because they do. Sign up now.

Monday, September 26, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Long Island Heroes Among Us Gala was once again held at the Oheka Castle. (Photo: Kevin Suttlehan)
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 72 adults and 19 children following 35 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities
  • Sep 28: Learn how to become a Disaster Action Team Responder in Westchester, Rockland County or Greenwich CT during this in-person information session.
  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Sound the Alarm on Long Island. (Photo: Lori-Ann Pizzarelli)
Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 259 adults and 96 children following 66 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review
Upcoming Events and Activities
  • Sep 21: Interested in volunteering with the Red Cross? Learn about volunteer positions with disaster preparedness, communications, volunteer services and much more at our upcoming Prospective Volunteer Information Session. Sign up and come listen, learn and ask your questions!
  • Sep 22: The #RedCrossGala on Sep. 22 will recognize civic leaders and heroic individuals who embody our humanitarian mission. Purchase tickets today!
  • Sep 28: Learn how to become a Disaster Action Team Responder in Westchester, Rockland County or Greenwich CT during this in-person information session.
  • Make a Difference and Fall into Service this Season. Volunteer Today as a Mass Care Team Member with the American Red Cross. During large disasters, you can support the day-to-day activities within a shelter which may include working in reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information, or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided, driver’s license preferred. Sign up today.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

In Case You Missed It

Preparedness in the Park event held at J. Hood Wright Park. (Photo: Michael Koster)

Over the last seven days, the Greater New York Red Cross has provided emergency assistance to 110 adults and 35 children following 38 local disaster responses. Here are some highlights from last week and a preview of upcoming activities. (See below)

Last Week in Review

Upcoming Events and Activities



Sunday, September 11, 2022

Remembering 9/11: D.A.R.T. – A Brotherhood of Service


The heroic actions of the firefighters who rushed into the smoke and flames of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 are almost legendary. They gave so much, and 343 paid the ultimate price, giving up their lives to save the lives of others. What few people may know is that five of those who perished were members of the Red Cross Disaster Assistance Response Team, or D.A.R.T., a group of firefighters with Red Cross training who donate their time to help others.

D.A.R.T. was formed as a partnership between the FDNY and the American Red Cross in Greater New York in 1989, when 18 active-duty firefighters responded to an urgent Red Cross call for bilingual volunteers to help 90,000 families in Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Hugo. The firefighters were trained by Red Cross and then deployed to Puerto Rico with Red Cross.

Since then, disaster responses have taken members of D.A.R.T. to some of the largest, most devastating natural and human-caused calamities of the last two decades. None hit closer to home than the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.

On that day, D.A.R.T. members numbered 110, most of them active-duty firefighters. Many D.A.R.T. members rushed to lower Manhattan with their respective fire companies, running into the smoke and flames to save lives.

Luis Fragoso, the current chair of the organization, and one of the founding members of D.A.R.T., was assigned to RAC-4 on Roosevelt Island on 9/11, where Special Ops is headquartered. Later that morning, he responded to Ground Zero, where he worked on and off until the end of January.

Fragoso remembers calling into the D.A.R.T phone message line and hearing dozens of messages from retired firefighters who were eager to help with the rescue and recovery operation. (Active firefighters, who were on call at their respective firehouses during this period, were unable to respond with D.A.R.T.)

Fragoso asked two other D.A.R.T. members, Ret. Captain Francis J. Bernard and Ret. Lieutenant Matthew Kiernan, to run the 9/11 D.A.R.T. operation. Bernard and Kiernan stepped up and worked out of the Red Cross Brooklyn chapter, retrieving calls and assigning D.A.R.T. member the tasks of assisting the families.

Many of the more than 120 retired FDNY responders who assisted D.A.R.T. during the 9/11 relief effort eventually joined the group.

Mike Mondello was one of those firefighters.

On 9/11 Mondello was home with his grandchildren in Rockland County, watching TV “in shock.” He immediately packed his gear onto his truck and headed to New York City. Finding the bridges closed, he turned back, ending up at a local dock, where he “hitched” a ride with a man willing to take him and three nurses who also needed transportation to Manhattan on a small private boat. “I can’t tell you what made me go to that dock or where this guy came from, but that’s something I’ll cherish my whole life,” Mondello said.

Mondello checked in with a makeshift command center set up at Ground Zero. “This was still in the opening hours. In the chaos, you picked your own assignment.” He worked at the site for about a week. Then he heard that D.A.R.T. was asking for firefighters to help out at the Red Cross Family Assistance Center at Pier 94 where survivors and family members of those who perished received food, beverages and emotional support. Mondello decided this was something he wanted to assist with.

In the six months that followed, D.A.R.T. alternated between search and recovery at Ground Zero and supporting grief-stricken families of victims. Mondello says of helping the families, "We worked 24/7, taking survivors to doctor’s appointments, shopping, wherever they had to go.”

He said it was especially meaningful for D.A.R.T. members to be helping the families of fallen firefighters. “We had a deep personal connection with them and they with us. There was a level of comfort in that they felt that a brother was taking care of a brother.” In fact, Mondello called supporting the families “a life-changing experience.”

Most, if not all, D.A.R.T. members feel the same about their D.A.R.T. service. “Without being involved with DART there would be a void in my life,” said Robert Reeg, a WTC responder who joined D.A.R.T. in 2006. “It gives you a feeling of fulfillment, and I think everybody needs a bit of that.”

Although Reeg was seriously injured on 9/11 by falling debris, he was fortunate to live to tell about his experience. Sadly, one of the five D.A.R.T. members who died was a good friend of Reeg’s, “an all-around warm, caring guy to work with and a committed firefighter.”

“It was very tough to lose those guys,” said Fragoso. “They were dedicated to D.A.R.T., dedicated to the Red Cross and dedicated to the people of New York.”

Although Mondello didn’t know the five who were lost on 9/11, he said, “They were still my brothers.”

Reeg added that the D.A.R.T members and other firefighters who lost their lives during 9/11, "died doing something they loved. We’re a brotherhood and a sisterhood and we like to give back to the community. We honor their memory by continuing to serve."

Through D.A.R.T. they are able to do just that.

The Greater New York Red Cross pays its deepest respects to the five D.A.R.T. members who lost their lives on 9/11 and to their families: LT. David J. Fontana; SQ-1, FM. Vincent D. Kane, Engine-22; LT. Thomas R. Kelly, Ladder-105; FF. Gregory Saucedo, Ladder-5; and FF. Gerard Schrang, Rescue-3. 

LT. David J. Fontana
SQ - 1

FM. Vincent D. Kane
Engine - 22

LT. Thomas R. Kelly
Ladder - 105

FF. Gregory Saucedo
Ladder - 5

FF. Gerard Schrang
Rescue - 3