Mark kastel
New Member
Hello all,
Since many of you are not on the Laser list-serve I've taken the liberty of forwarding the message below from Vanguard and North Sails.
You might be aware of the fact that the sails for our boats, along with Sunfish, Vanguard 15 and others, are manufactured in a loft in Sri Lanka. We have all seen the devastation and human toll from this disaster. The message below puts a face on this tragedy.
These are the people who sew the sails for our toys. We are lucky enough to live in an economy that affords us the leisure time and disposable income to enjoy our sport. I hope you will join me in making a generous contribution to people who are in need, to people who have suffered catastrophic physical and emotional loss, to people we have a connection with.
Sincerely yours,
Mark A. Kastel
ILCA Member
La Crosse, Wisconsin Laser Fleet
PS: for those of you on this list who have a relationship to the other classes which have sails manufactured by North Sails (Sunfish, Vanguard, etc.)in Sri Lanka, would you please make the effort to disseminate this information to other class members?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto
[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chip Johns
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 6:33 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Sri Lanka update
Hello,
I received the following from Larry MacDonald, who manages the North Sri
Lanka operation.
Dear Team, Thank you all so much for your phone calls and e-mails of
concern. This is truly a horrific event and difficult to for us to fully
understand. I have been in constant communication with our team in Sri Lanka
and want to update you on both the situation in Sri Lanka as well as at
North Sails Sri Lanka.
The Island was hit by a Tsunami on Sunday Dec 26th around 9:45 am. The
coastal regions of the East, south and south west coasts were hardest hit
and were destroyed. These areas are about a 1-6 hour drive from our factory.
They have high concentration of population as well as many resort hotels.
Unofficially I was told last night that over 30,000 people have died with
over a million left homeless. The city of Colombo where 6 million of the
country's 19 million live, was not affected much at all. The port was closed
temporarily and is now open expecting to clear the backlog in a week or so.
The airport remains open as normal. Our factories are located about 20
kilometers inland from Colombo and were not affected.
Our focus for the last few days has been on our employees. Last weekend was
a long holiday weekend with many traveling to their coastal villages to
visit family. Some visited beaches for the weekend. We opened for business
Tuesday and were operating as normal although the atmosphere was very
sombre. All of our Management, supervisors are accounted for, but we still
are missing 5 factory employees, and have located another who has lost her
house and is at a refugee camp. Today Ajantha,our Production Manager,is
going to get the one girl we have located and bring her from the camp.
Tomorrow we will send out two teams to search for the remaining 5 missing.
Business for North Sails Sri Lanka will continue as normal with perhaps
some minor delays due to some shipping backlogs.
Many of you have asked us how you can help. The employees of North Sails
Sri Lanka set up a fund and all pledged one day salary from this week to get
it established. The fund is to be used to help our employees rebuild houses,
buy clothing, water, food, and medicine to assist them getting their lives
back to some sense of normalcy. If there is any remaining in the fund it
will be used to help others in Sri Lanka. Anyone wishing to contribute can
do so two ways.
First is to wire money to:
North Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd
Bank acct # 1950760401
Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd
Foreign Branch
Bristol St
Colombo 1.
Please include your name and "Sri Lanka Fund" with the transfer. Also please
send an e mail to our Financial Manager Amrit at [email protected]
when you send it for him to follow it up.
Secondly you can send cheques to
North Marine Group
125 Old Gate Lane
Milford Ct
06460
Attn: Jay Kiraly
The cheques should be made out to North Sails..then please attach a note or
memo indicating the money is ear-marked for the relief efforts These moneys
can immediately be transferred to Sri Lanka.
I am traveling to Sri Lanka in 12 days and will update again at that time.
If we learn anything about our missing employees, we will send the
information.The extended North Sails Family has been very supportive
responding to this tragedy and on behalf of the entire Sri Lanka team
thank-you for your thoughts and prayers.
Larry
Obviously this has been a terrible tragedy for the people of Sri Lanka and
many other countries in South Asia. I have been to Sri Lanka twice to visit
the North facilities and the people there are wonderful. I am thankful that
most of them have survived this tragedy.
Vanguard will be sending a significant donation to the fund that North has
set up in the names of our employees and all of our classes.
Chip Johns
President
Vanguard Sailboats
300 Highpoint Ave
Portsmouth, RI 02871
401 683 0960 t
401 683 0990 f
[email protected]
www.teamvanguard.com
Since many of you are not on the Laser list-serve I've taken the liberty of forwarding the message below from Vanguard and North Sails.
You might be aware of the fact that the sails for our boats, along with Sunfish, Vanguard 15 and others, are manufactured in a loft in Sri Lanka. We have all seen the devastation and human toll from this disaster. The message below puts a face on this tragedy.
These are the people who sew the sails for our toys. We are lucky enough to live in an economy that affords us the leisure time and disposable income to enjoy our sport. I hope you will join me in making a generous contribution to people who are in need, to people who have suffered catastrophic physical and emotional loss, to people we have a connection with.
Sincerely yours,
Mark A. Kastel
ILCA Member
La Crosse, Wisconsin Laser Fleet
PS: for those of you on this list who have a relationship to the other classes which have sails manufactured by North Sails (Sunfish, Vanguard, etc.)in Sri Lanka, would you please make the effort to disseminate this information to other class members?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto
[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chip JohnsSent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 6:33 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Sri Lanka update
Hello,
I received the following from Larry MacDonald, who manages the North Sri
Lanka operation.
Dear Team, Thank you all so much for your phone calls and e-mails of
concern. This is truly a horrific event and difficult to for us to fully
understand. I have been in constant communication with our team in Sri Lanka
and want to update you on both the situation in Sri Lanka as well as at
North Sails Sri Lanka.
The Island was hit by a Tsunami on Sunday Dec 26th around 9:45 am. The
coastal regions of the East, south and south west coasts were hardest hit
and were destroyed. These areas are about a 1-6 hour drive from our factory.
They have high concentration of population as well as many resort hotels.
Unofficially I was told last night that over 30,000 people have died with
over a million left homeless. The city of Colombo where 6 million of the
country's 19 million live, was not affected much at all. The port was closed
temporarily and is now open expecting to clear the backlog in a week or so.
The airport remains open as normal. Our factories are located about 20
kilometers inland from Colombo and were not affected.
Our focus for the last few days has been on our employees. Last weekend was
a long holiday weekend with many traveling to their coastal villages to
visit family. Some visited beaches for the weekend. We opened for business
Tuesday and were operating as normal although the atmosphere was very
sombre. All of our Management, supervisors are accounted for, but we still
are missing 5 factory employees, and have located another who has lost her
house and is at a refugee camp. Today Ajantha,our Production Manager,is
going to get the one girl we have located and bring her from the camp.
Tomorrow we will send out two teams to search for the remaining 5 missing.
Business for North Sails Sri Lanka will continue as normal with perhaps
some minor delays due to some shipping backlogs.
Many of you have asked us how you can help. The employees of North Sails
Sri Lanka set up a fund and all pledged one day salary from this week to get
it established. The fund is to be used to help our employees rebuild houses,
buy clothing, water, food, and medicine to assist them getting their lives
back to some sense of normalcy. If there is any remaining in the fund it
will be used to help others in Sri Lanka. Anyone wishing to contribute can
do so two ways.
First is to wire money to:
North Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd
Bank acct # 1950760401
Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd
Foreign Branch
Bristol St
Colombo 1.
Please include your name and "Sri Lanka Fund" with the transfer. Also please
send an e mail to our Financial Manager Amrit at [email protected]
when you send it for him to follow it up.
Secondly you can send cheques to
North Marine Group
125 Old Gate Lane
Milford Ct
06460
Attn: Jay Kiraly
The cheques should be made out to North Sails..then please attach a note or
memo indicating the money is ear-marked for the relief efforts These moneys
can immediately be transferred to Sri Lanka.
I am traveling to Sri Lanka in 12 days and will update again at that time.
If we learn anything about our missing employees, we will send the
information.The extended North Sails Family has been very supportive
responding to this tragedy and on behalf of the entire Sri Lanka team
thank-you for your thoughts and prayers.
Larry
Obviously this has been a terrible tragedy for the people of Sri Lanka and
many other countries in South Asia. I have been to Sri Lanka twice to visit
the North facilities and the people there are wonderful. I am thankful that
most of them have survived this tragedy.
Vanguard will be sending a significant donation to the fund that North has
set up in the names of our employees and all of our classes.
Chip Johns
President
Vanguard Sailboats
300 Highpoint Ave
Portsmouth, RI 02871
401 683 0960 t
401 683 0990 f
[email protected]
www.teamvanguard.com