Remembering the generosity of Atlantic Canadians
Posted Dec 25, 2009 07:44:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Boxing Day, December 26th will mark the 5th anniversary of the most devastating natural disaster in recent history – the Tsunami in South Asia.
The Canadian Red Cross raised 350-million dollars in response with Atlantic Canadians raising over 9.4 million dollars.
The director for Atlantic Canada, John Byrne says he’ll never forget what he was doing on that December 26th, 2004.
“I was nestling myself in after a great Christmas day and all of a sudden this broke and the Red Cross went into action. We were affected here in atlantic, we had offices open around the clock, line-ups all over the place, we had people knocking on our door wanting to give money.”
Byrne says it was one of the greatest humanitarian efforts ever. He says to date 97 per cent of funds raised have been invested in tsunami response and recovery operations.
