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MACY’S SHOPPING DAY, OCTOBER 16, SUPPORTS 9/11 CANINES

West Nyack, NY, October 6, 2010 – Those who shop at Macy’s on Saturday, October 16th will have a chance to save 10%-25% on selected merchandise while supporting the Canine Search and Rescue (SAR) Community of 9/11. Macy’s Shop for a Cause will take place at all Macy’s stores nationwide that day, with discount tickets sold in advance for a donation of $5.

At Macy’s at Palisades Center Mall in Rockland County, shoppers will have the chance to meet real search and rescue dogs with their handlers at a meet-and-greet from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A live concert featuring cabaret singer Nancy Bach and soprano Kirstin Plumley of the Twins Mothers’ Club of Bergen County is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. There will be a fashion show at 1:15 featuring the Amalgamate Dance Company and baritone John Cimino of Creative Leaps International, along with search and rescue dogs. Arts & crafts projects for kids will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the canine groups Tails of Hope Foundation and Finding One Another, as well as several canine search and rescue non-profit organizations. These groups are honoring and celebrating the canine search and rescue efforts of 9/11 with a year-long commemoration culminating in September 2011.

“We are honoring the whole community who worked during that terrible time and especially the urban canine search and rescue teams,” said Barbara Ela, Acting Executive Director of the 10th Anniversary Canine Search and Rescue Tribute. “These canine teams worked right alongside the police, firefighters, and many others at Ground Zero and suffered some of the same side effects.”

According to Penny Sullivan, President of Ramapo Rescue Dog Association, based in Bergen County, NJ, and 10th Anniversary Canine SAR Tribute Advisory Board member, “Most SAR teams are entirely volunteer. They give freely of their time and service ‘so that others may live.’ We are definitely in need of programs to benefit our working dogs and handlers—programs such as those to fund medical research to address the many health issues affecting our dogs over time.”

Over a 10-year period of time, these average citizens not only volunteer their time, but incur expenses ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 to purchase their working dog, train, equip, and certify themselves and their canine partner, provide veterinary care, etc. “It’s expensive and time-consuming, but they do it out of the goodness of their hearts to benefit and strengthen our society,” said Linda Blick, founding board member of Tails of Hope Foundation, based in Orange County, NY, and chair of 9/11 10th Anniversary Search and Rescue Tribute. Tails of Hope has a large presence in the Bergen/Rockland County areas.

Locally, tickets for Macy’s Shop for a Cause on October 16 are available beginning Thursday, October 7, at area stores in Bergen County for a $5 donation. A tear-off on the ticket may be entered in a drawing for a $500 Macy’s gift card at the store on October 16th.

About the Project

Purpose

The tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11 is an opportunity to pay tribute to the members of the SAR Community, volunteer and professional, canine and human, who served so heroically and whose work continues today with new catastrophes and crises.

Mission

In paying tribute, we also seek to support the needs of the field, the needs of the individual canines and their human partners and the standards of practice, care and research needed to safeguard all those engaged in this work. Our goal is to raise funds that will provide financial assistance for coverage of veterinary expenses associated with SAR work and to create programs to educate the public to the work and on-going needs of the SAR community.

Events

A series of public events, including a thoughtful, celebratory evening of music, poetry, dance and song called “A Concert of Ideas” will be held during the week of September 11, 2011 in New York City to catalyze new thinking and launch ongoing educational programs. The Concert of Ideas Finding One Another: A Courage Beyond Measure is being produced by Creative Leaps International, a highly innovative nonprofit founded in 1972 whose performers and composers are winners of more than 60 prestigious awards for excellence in performance artistry and boast collaborations with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein. They will be joined in this production by Amalgamate Dance, one of the City's most energetic and original young dance companies. More details will be available on our website.

Sponsors

Finding One Another: 10th Anniversary Tribute to the SAR Community of 9/11 is being spearheaded by Tails of Hope Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing the fields of veterinary and human medicine through a comparative medicine approach focusing on eradicating cancer and other life-threatening diseases affecting companion animals and people. The tribute events will be hosted by Meera Gandhi, CEO of The Giving Back Foundation. The Project’s Advisory Committee includes veterinary and human medical experts, SAR volunteers, and artists, business, trauma and nonprofit professionals all of whom are dedicated to honoring the canine/human partnership. For more information please email or call 845-725-7944.