The Effort

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AT THIS TIME, WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING ANY DONATIONS.

UPDATE FROM AZAR ABBASI:

"DUE TO THE RELENTLESS EFFORTS, DRIVE, AND NOBLE HEARTS OF 100 VOLUNTEERS, WE HAD A SUCCESSFUL DONATION DRIVE LAST WEEK. ON SATURDAY, 10/22/05, WE WERE ABLE TO COLLECT 1000 TENTS, CLOSE TO 2000 BLANKETS, 100 CRUTCHES, AND A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES.

We are currently accepting NO DONATIONS. As a result of the community's generosity, we now have an entire warehouse full of donations, enough to fill three or four more tractor trailers. We hope to arrange another donation drive in the near future; however, at this time, backlog is towering as even JFK warehouses are full.

Even after constant reiteration, people have donated goods that cannot be shipped, i.e., of degraded condition or not on list of items being accepted. Although the generosity and good intentions of donors are appreciated, this situation has made it difficult to store the important items, as well as tripled the work load of volunteers.

Due to this situation, volunteers are once again desperately needed this Saturday, 10/29, from 9AM to 5PM, to sort, re-pack, and load the remaining boxes.

This call is for VOLUNTEERS ONLY. WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS AT THIS TIME. If you would like to donate tents or medical supplies ONLY, please contact me.

I would like to specially thank Farah Chohan, Huma Akhtar, Yasmeen Ahmed, Azhar Baig, and my sister-in-law, Ayesha Gilani, for their assistance in organization and execution of the largest donation drive in the VA/DC/MD tri-state area.

I would also like to reiterate my gratitude towards PIA District Sales Manager, Jonaid Rizwan, Hussain and Maryum Quettawala and family for donating to us the Inter-Global Systems warehouse, Mike Ball of Cavalier Logistics for donation of a 53-foot trailor, Zarrar Husain, Aakif Aslam and Hassan Ibrahim for arranging funds for shipping, Rizwan Akhtar for donation of this domain, and the Adams Center for taking donations on our behalf. A very special thanks to them.

Roughly 100 volunteers came out last Saturday and helped receive, sort, re-pack, and load packages of donations."

Without the hard work of the following volunteers, none of the aforementioned would have been possible: (in alphabetical order)

Arif Abbasi

Ruhi Abdullah

Aasil Kazi Ahmad

Bilaal Ahmed

Shaheen Ahmed

Shakir Ahmed

Yasmeen Ahmed

Ana Akhtar

Asem Akhtar

Huma Akhtar and daughter

Rizwan Akhtar

Sana Ansari

Nazia Aslam

Azhar Baig

Danish Baig

Raheel Baig

Shama Baig

Zafar Baig

Farah Chohan

Zahid Chohan

Umer Farouq

Ayesha Gilani

Fahad Gilani

Zarrar Hussain

Humza Kazmi

Obaid Kazmi

Qamar Kazmi

Uzma Kazmi

Zubaid Kazmi

Saima Khan

Aisha Khawaja

Omar Khawaja

Yousaf Khwaja

Masood Memon

Jamaal Moore

Nabeel Palla

Mr. Payne and Noreen Payne

Masood Pirzada

Sonia Pirzada

Kamran Raja

Waseem Raja

Ali Rizvi

Uzma Sabir

Tariq Saleem

Aazim Siddiqui

Adeel Siddiqui

Wasif Shakeel

Saira Sufi

Faisal Sultan

Fawad Sultan

Saadia Sultan

Sadaf Tajammal

Seemin Qadri

Hussain Quettawala

Maryum Quettawala

Maheen Qureshi

And all the numerous remaining volunteers we failed to mention...

(Don't see your name on the list? Email Ayesha here.)