January 10, 2005 – – Pittsburgh, PA – – Draeger Safety, Inc., located in Pittsburgh and its parent company Draeger Safety in Luebeck, Germany are combining their efforts to help the
tens of thousands of victims affected by the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia. Draeger Safety, a manufacturer of safety equipment, has donated 5000 face masks to Sri Lanka and 5000 to Indonesia. The Pittsburgh office of Draeger Safety has pledged to donate Piccola dust masks to the Pittsburgh Sri Lankan Community Tsunami Relief Effort. Draeger Safety in Luebeck is currently scheduling further face mask shipments from Germany into the region and has also donated $130,000.00 USD to the Red Cross. Half of these funds will be delivered as medical equipment while leaving an open ended offer to the Red Cross for any other safety products needs which the company will deliver as soon as requested.
Draeger Safetys Pittsburgh office has a direct link to the Sri Lankan relief effort through their Breathing Gas Systems Manager, Mr. Rohan Fernando who was born in Sri Lanka and still has family there. At Draeger Safety, Inc. he is active developing new products and concepts for the military diving forces and also for the fire fighter/first responder communities. Last week, Mr. Fernando, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Sir Lankan Community began a donation drive within the Draeger Safety, Inc. Pittsburgh office to organize relief efforts with the focus of getting aid directly to the victims with no overhead costs. This attempt within Draeger Safety, Inc. is specifically targeting childrens needs. These donations will be an ongoing endeavor with two immediate current action items. The first is to collect funds to disperse to grass root organizations working directly with the victims. The second action item, which has the Draeger Safety, Inc. employees busy, is to collect goods to help the children. These items will be delivered to a New Jersey Buddhist Temple which has
connections with the Sir Lankan group, as they have made previous arrangements with a shipping line to transport all these donations to Sri Lanka free of charge. Mr. Fernando will
be delivering the goods to New Jersey along with some members of the Pittsburgh Sri Lankan group.
Contact:
Shelli Cosmides
Draeger Safety, Inc.
101 Technology Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15275-1057
Tel: 412-788-5671
Fax: 412-787-2207
Shelli.Cosmides@draeger.com
