|
 In
2000, as the American Red Cross entered a new
century (the third in its illustrious history)
it remained dedicated to its traditional roles;
helping to make families and communities safer
at home and around the world. A humanitarian service
organization, the American Red Cross annually
mobilizes relief to the victims of more than 63,000
disasters nationwide.
Pat Croce came on board with the American Red
Cross within the first week of the devastating
day on September 11th, 2001.
He became a manager volunteer at ground zero and
personally helped raise $1,000,000. Pat
is the honorary chair of the American Red Cross
Walk and has given various charitable speaking
engagements to help with their cause. Below
are words from the acting CEO at the time, Marc
Cerceo:
“As acting CEO of the Philadelphia Chapter
of The American Red Cross, I received a phone
call from Pat Croce on Wednesday, September 12
wanting to offer his assistance to the many families
devastated by the tragedy of 911. Just one
day after the catastrophe, he had already lined
up support from the business community to raise
$1 million by selling the American Flag to a million
people in the Delaware Valley. He said he
would be in my office the following morning at
9:00 to work out the details. He of course
was in my office at 8:50 and by end of day he
had me at KYW’s studio for a live PSA reaching
out for support. This was followed up by
a 6:00 am visit to WIP the next morning followed
by a visit to FOX for a live TV spot. By
noon that day, LOVE Park was shut down by thousands
of people attending a press conference to kick
off his campaign “Raise a million, Wave
a million.” Patti Labelle opened the
event singing God Bless America and every coach
and many players of our four Philly Teams were
present as well as the who’s who in Pennsylvania
politics. An amazing $27,000 was deposited
in a big box during the course of this 20 minute
press conference and by end of day Monday, the
total amount raised reached $1 million using the
support of all of the major Philly banks, Home
Depot, Acme and WAWA as collection sites.
20 days later, this number reached $11 million.
It was my distinct honor to travel to ground zero
with Pat on Sunday, September 16 to witness the
devastation and to provide relief to the workers
together as Red Cross volunteers.” –
Marc Cerceo
www.redcross-philly.org |
