On the eve of the third anniversary of the creation of Red Nose Response, I would like to take this opportunity to look forward and discuss the future of our organization. Our accomplishments since the early days following Hurricane Katrina have been numerous and are definitely worthy of recognition, but I would like to reserve that for our monthly E-zines. All of our volunteers are extraordinary and whether under the banner of RNR or not, they have touched lives across the country and I am forever grateful. At this time, though, as our organization closes in another year in existence and nearly 500 members, it is time to closely examine our next steps.

Red Nose Response was originally founded with one main goal - to give members of the clown community the opportunity to bring comic relief to those impacted by large scale disasters. We started with the desire to bring our members into shelters to support relief workers and to deliver joy, love and laughter to those most in need. Since that time, though, as new regulations have been put into place, it has become more difficult to complete this mission. Though we have encouraged our volunteers to take classes (which many have), we have come to realize that it is unrealistic to expect all of them to do so. In addition, through no fault of our responders, the process of certification and subsequently getting hands-on experience has not been as effortless as we would have liked and the range of activities available has been fairly limited. With that said, we must make it easier for all of those currently involved in RNR, and those to come, to not only make a difference, but to do so in a number of ways.

Moving forward, we will be going through a bit of a transition period in order to strengthen the organization. We have identified a number of areas for improvement and will be reassessing where we want to target our efforts. We hope you will be patient with us during this process. One activity that we can begin to discuss is the development of a disaster preparedness class that incorporates the clown arts. This class, originally created by Bob Gretton and the CEO of American Red Cross in Southern Maryland, Mike Zabko, will be initially launched in Maryland and then branch out across the country. It will be an engaging lecture that our responders and their alleys can easily embrace, learn to teach and subsequently use to educate their communities about important measures that can be taken before and after a disaster. In addition, we are examining relationships with other relief organizations besides the American Red Cross to give our volunteers a wider range of activities and new fundraising opportunities.

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask for your input. As we begin our transformation, we want your thoughts. We are interested in honest feedback about how you think our organization can improve and suggestions for the future. We want every single volunteer to feel like we are giving them a real chance to change lives.

Finally, we are in search of responders who are willing to take on leadership roles. If you are willing to step forward and want to be one of the driving forces as we move forward, let us know. Whether you are just joining us or have been a State Coordinator since the beginning, we need you. The time is now.

Thank you all for taking time out of your day to read this message. Once again, I want to express my appreciation for everything you have done. Have a wonderful day and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jeremy "Krispy" Cohen President and Founder, Red Nose Response

email: info@rednoseresponse.org

phone: 866-422-5696

web: http://www.rednoseresponse.org