Our guest speaker last week was Cheryl Moses from Bergen County United Way. The following is about the 2-1-1 service Moses introduced to us. The information is available at their website at http://www.bergenunitedway.org.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 2-1-1 or click nj211.org. It’s free, confidential and available 24/7. In the last year alone, 250,000 calls to 2-1-1 were answered and nj211.org handled 2 million database searches on the website.

2-1-1 is the gateway to health and social services, government assistance, and local community resources. A call to 2-1-1 or click onto nj211.org makes the simple but critical connection to caring professionals who know community resources and can make help happen. Whether it is a community wide emergency or an everyday concern, callers can find assistance for everything from healthcare to housing, shelters to food banks, legal aid to counseling.

Today, Paramus Rotary donated $5000.00 to Teaneck Armory Family Assistance Center (FAC). FAC is intended to simplify the process of accessing needed services and support for National Guard families called to active duty for an extended period of time. The primary mission of any FAC is to inform and emotionally support families so the Guard members can perform their mission.

We had an edifying surprise when Nancy Kennedy, from the American Red Cross, not only presented to us how the local Red Cross has been active in our community, but also gave a dramatic testimony of how she got involved with the Red Cross after barely surviving the September 11, 2001 attack while she was working at the 70th floor of the South Tower.   To give you a more complete story, I found the following article about her reported in The Record.