COAA
COAA Sichuan Earthquake Relief
June 2008
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your generous contributions! COAA's Sichuan Earthquake Relief Campaign has received tremendous responses, generating $14,979 from 179 donors. These donations come from 23 professional institutions, spanning 15 different states! Among these 179 donors are Drs. Kuan-Man Xu, Bruce Wielicki, and Takmeng Wong of NASA Langley Center who contributed the monetary part of their NASA Henry Reid Award. In Boulder, Colorado, Drs. Tingjun Zhang, Xinzhao Chu, and De-Zheng Sun at NSIDC have raised an astounding $3,120. The NOAA Science Center has collected $4,270 as of June 2008.
We are confident the total amount will top $16,000 when this campaign is wrapped up. We hope that our campaign will provide aid and support to the families of victims and our colleagues in the Meteorological Bureau of Sichuan Province (MBSP). Our Paypal account will remain open to accept donations until the end of July.
To deliver the donations to our targeted earthquake relief effort, we have decided to send the fund through the Chinese Meteorological Society (CMS) Sichuan Chapter. CMS is the Sister Organization of COAA. The benefactors include families of earthquake victims in MBSP and our colleagues in the Beichuan Meteorological Station, where the earthquake has hit the hardest. We are discussing the technical details with MBSP to finalize this channel. Dr. Tingjun Zhang of NSIDC has conversed with the Administrators of MBSP, and Professor Da-lin Zhang of UMD has recently contacted the Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA). Dr. Guoguang Zheng, the Administrator of CMA, has expressed his sincere appreciation to COAA and its overseas friends for their concerns and donations.
All donations without overhead will be fully used to support the earthquake relief efforts of MBSP. A final report will be provided by MBSP to document how donations are spent. The donors’ name list and affiliations have been posted on the COAA Southern California Chapter (SCC) Website. Please check the name list to make sure your donation has been received. We are keeping the process transparent; anyone can send emails to guyu_h@yahoo.com and yxue@geog.ucla.edu requesting audit information. The donation record, which include copies of all checks and our Paypal account record will be reviewed by the COAA Board of Directors. Each donor will receive a receipt from the COAA SCC and a certificate of acknowledgement from MBSP in July.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know.
Yongkang Xue and S.K. Yang
