Buffalo Joins Community Wireless Rapid Response Coalition.
For Immediate Release
Buffalo Area Technology Coalition to Aid In Katrina Relief Effort
Buffalo, NY – September 9th, 2005 – With the support of InfoTech Niagara and BuffaloWifi.org are sending a team of two wireless engineers to the Katrina Affected Gulf Coast to aid in delivering communication networks to the evacuee shelters. The purpose of these networks is to provide free VoIP phone services and Internet communications to people living in the more than 300 shelters across the Gulf Coast. Thinwires will be working with the original advance team to provide extended logistics and project coordination in the affected areas even after the trip ends. The initial effort will be in the Gulfport, MS area working with two shelters that currently house more than 4000 evacuees.
Thinwires has joined a coalition of wireless engineers working jointly on this extended project called Community Wireless (cuwireless.net) based out of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Campus. Six teams have already been deployed into the area, basing operations out of Rayville, LA on a farm owned by a local Wireless Internet Service Provider in the NOLA area.
Cash donations are currently being accepted to fund a 10-day relief trip to the area and to purchase and deploy wireless networking equipment as needed. The team, which is leaving on the morning of Saturday September 10, 2005 will be camping in tents to keep expenses to a minimum and will need to provide their own food and water supplies as to not further burden the shelters they are working at. Donations will be used to cover the costs associated with the trip with a current goal of $5000.00 in order to make all our intentions possible. Please help in anyway you can.
Please make all checks payable to ILDC and send to BuffaloWifi Katrina Fund c/o ECIDA at 275 Oak Street Buffalo, NY 14203
Thanks to the gracious support of InfoTech Niagara and BuffaloWifi.org, they will handle receiving all contributions and administering them to ensure that all funds are used appropriately and specifically to further our cause on this trip. As part of our experience, we will be taking pictures and blogging our experience to let everyone following our trip our progress. The blog link will be posted on Thinwires.com, infotechniagara.org and BuffaloWifi.org as soon as it’s available.
For More Information, please contact:
Michael Kasprzyk, CEO, Thinwires, LLC
716.316.7953 mobile
mikek@thinwires.com
If Michael Kasprzyk is unreachable due to the nature of the trip, please direct inquiries to:
Les Hoffman, Director of Technology, ECIDA and BuffaloWifi.org
716.856.6525
lhoffman@ecidany.com
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