MONTREAL, April 28 /PRNewswire/ - CN (TSX: CNR)(NYSE: CNI)
announced today it has teamed up with the Canadian Red Cross to
recruit and train corporate employees as disaster volunteers to
help the agency respond to natural disasters. With a contribution
of C$450,000, CN becomes a national
sponsor of the Ready When the Time Comes (RWTC) natural disaster
preparedness program.
RWTC is a workplace volunteer program in which the Red Cross
trains and prepares employees of businesses who can be mobilized as
a community-based volunteer force when large-scale natural
disasters strike, including floods, fires, tornadoes and extreme
weather conditions.
CN's contribution will provide the RWTC program with the
following program support:
- Training of RWTC volunteers;
- Development of information on how to prepare for emergencies;
- Development of disaster and emergency intervention strategies.
"We are extremely grateful for CN's generous contribution to
this innovative program," said Conrad Sauvé, secretary general and
CEO of the Canadian Red Cross. "We also applaud its team members
for helping the Canadian Red Cross build a network of volunteers.
Ready When the Time Comes will help the Canadian Red Cross
accomplish its mandate of preparing and responding to disasters. It
enables us to reach out to corporations and tap into one of their
most valuable resources, employees."
Karen Phillips, CN's
vice-president of public and government affairs, said: "At CN, we
feel it is our responsibility to help the communities in which we
operate, and our partnership with the Canadian Red Cross will help
us fulfill that objective. We are proud to become a national
sponsor of the Ready When the Time Comes program, a rewarding and
innovative way to help in times of greatest need."
For more information about the Ready When the Time Comes
program, please visit:
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=37340&tid=001
CN - Canadian National Railway Company and its operating railway
subsidiaries - spans Canada and
mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the
Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports
of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New
Orleans, and Mobile, Ala.,
and the key metropolitan areas of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth,
Minn./Superior, Wis.,
Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points
in North America. For more
information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.
The Canadian Red Cross is a member of the International Red
Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which includes the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the
International Committee of the Red Cross and more than 185 national
Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Our mission is to improve the
lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in
Canada and around the world.
SOURCE CN