The Harvard Community was made aware of the hurricane disaster
in the Dominican Republic by campus activists and asked for
relief goods. The institutional response was that most of the
student discards were spoken for by local charities. The
institution was reapproached and the result was that 600 second
hand student twin bed mattresses are being collected for
shipment to Yuna by way of Puerto Plata. The activists who made
the arrangements has requested anonymity but the gift is being
made in memorial to Arthur Lithgow. Arthur Lithgow was an
actor/director in the United States who was born in Puerto
Plata. Coincidentally? His better known son is John Lithgow a
Harvard '67 alumnus Arthur Lithgow's granddaughter Phoebe
Lithgow is a member of the class of '04.
Sent to us by Richard Bond at
hirambondco@ureach.com
Was followed up by this update from Richard Bond:
Verification of the story above may be obtained by calling the
Boston Dominican Consulate. 1-617-482-8121
What basically happened was that there had been a local service
nonprofit which would have received the second hand mattresses.
They would have distributed those mattresses to metro Boston
families relocating from homeless shelters. That nonprofit had
gone bankrupt and closed its facility.
That facility's closure made the mattresses available for the
timely Dominican hurricane relief alternative. Rob Gogan of
Harvard University Recycling has made arrangements to turn over
the mattresses on June the 15th and 17th.
We are hoping that John Lithgow will do a pro bono TV spot to
help raise awareness and funds for shipping the mattresses and
other relief goods being held by the Consulate.
Thank You
Richard Bond
For more on the Lithgow connection to the DR (Puerto Plata), see
http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31462
