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IT&E donates $100K to American Red Cross
Staff of IT&E pose for a photo as they present American Red Cross-NMI Chapter with their $100,000 donation Friday. (Erwin Encinares)
A telecommunications company on Saipan donated a significant amount of cash to the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter over the weekend.
Telecommunications company IT&E donated Friday $100,000 to the local chapter of the American Red Cross in their office along Airport Road.
The significant donation, according to company general manager Rose Soledad, was in line with the company’s mission to support local recovery efforts.
“We also donated solar lights distributed by the Governor’s Office,” she said, adding that “thousands” of solar lights were distributed, amounting to about $100,000 altogether.
“It’s not just during times of calamity—we have always been community partners. We have always partnered with American Red Cross and other first responders,” she said. Soledad pointed out that her company provided telephone and internet services to volunteers that entered the CNMI in response to Super Typhoon Yutu, which struck Saipan and Tinian late October 2018.
“Everybody has to be connected,” she said.
In an interview, ARC-NMI Chapter executive director John Hirsh noted that the donation was “huge.”
“We are incredibly grateful for their generosity and their partners,” Hirsh said. “This will be the fuel American Red Cross will use to provide humanitarian support for the community,” he continued, adding that the organization does not get appropriations from the local government.
“We are really reliant on company’s like IT&E to step up, particularly when there is a disaster like this and provide the financial resources we need to get the job done and help families that are suffering out there,” he said.
When asked if the organization had any plans for the use of the money, Hirsh said it would be going back to the community.
“We have provided millions of dollars in assistance to families already, either through financial assistance or direct emergency supplies such as tarps, mosquito nets, water, food, and all these different things that we have given out,” he said. “Their donation makes this possible,” he added.
