Ventura Couple Will Fundraise and
Deliver Direct Delivery of Katrina Relief in October

Ventura, California (September 13, 2005) – Local Ventura resident Angela Kirwin will be traveling to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in October to personally distribute disaster relief to families. A fundraiser will be held on October 10 to raise funds for living supplies that Kirwin will purchase and deliver to families in need. Kirwin will be paying for her own travel expenses and will stay in Hattiesburg, MS at a local bike shop as hotels are all either filled with huricane evacues or destroyed by the category-5 hurricane. She will be able to do this through her contacts in the Mississippi school districts through Roots & Shoots, a youth service learning program of which she is a parent leader and her contact with a former customer of hers when she worked in the bike industry for Diamondback Bicycles in Camarillo.

Kirwin is interested in collaborating with your publication with a daily journal and photos of her experiences on the ground. Her first priority, though, will getting the items or assistance people need as quickly (and respectfully) as possible.

The Kirwins are not professional relief workers. Nor do they have any special training other than first hand experience doing on the ground disaster relief in Thailand working with medical and rescue personnel and with the local school district administrators and teachers. Both Kirwin's work work for a living: Angela as a web web consultant and Mark is an attorney. They hope other people will be inspired by their example and do their own relief efforts to help others recover from a disaster.

KIRF was created this year when the Kirwins and their two children returned from a family vacation in Ranong Province in coastal southern Thailand, safe after the tsunami waves hit on December 26, 2004. They had arrived in Ranong on December 25 planning to go stay at a beach resort when last a last minute change to their plans forced them to stay up in the mountains near the hot springs at a guesthouse. The beach resort was completely destroyed and 170 people died when the tsunami waves reached Thailand's coastline. After volunteering helping stranded and injured tourists at a local hospital and purchasing and delivering relief supplies to local Thais who lost everything they decided they wanted to help more.

Upon their return home to Ventura the Kirwin's formed their non-profit foundation Kirwin International Relief Foundation to raise money and deliver aid to families devasted by a natural disaster. Their mission is to help people help themselves with relief and sustainable income generating projects that help people once again provide for their familes.