Harris Rosen Foundation’s Haiti Fundraiser Reaches Half of $1 Million Goal for Long Term “Relief-Rebuild-Sustain” Program

Lake Highland Preparatory School Students Raise an Astounding $116,000 for Rosen Haiti Relief Fund

For more information, contact: Mary Deatrick DPR
(407) 332-5212 mary@deatrickpr.com
Photography available at http://www.rosenhotels.com/media

ORLANDO (Feb. 2, 2010) – As relief efforts continue in Haiti, Orlando hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen is continuing his local fundraising effort, having raised close to half of his $1 million goal for a long-term “Relief-Rebuild-Sustain” program. 

This is not the first time Rosen has spearheaded relief programs for Haiti. During the past decade, his foundation has donated and provided door-to-door delivery of educational and medical supplies, and raised funds to purchase and deliver more than 200 water filtration systems to towns throughout Haiti. Approximately 30 percent of Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ associates are from Haiti or are of Haitian descent.

With 100 percent of the donations to the Harris Rosen Foundation going to relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti, donations from the community have been ongoing.  This morning, students from Orlando’s Lake Highland Preparatory School presented Harris Rosen with a check for $116,000 that they collected by conducting a Spirit Day for Haiti. According to a school spokesman, a Spirit Day normally yields only around $1,000, but both students and their parents took seriously the opportunity to make an impact through Rosen’s relief and rebuilding program. After learning about her school’s fundraiser, first-grader Shasha Nichoson, age six, asked her friends to bring money for Haiti to her birthday party in lieu of gifts. She raised $52 for the effort.

Along with money, the Harris Rosen Foundation has also collected 30,000 pounds of supplies for Haiti, including palettes of batteries and flashlights, towels, hygiene items including 50,000 bars of soap, first-aid kits and other emergency items which will be delivered within the week.

Rosen’s “Relief-Rebuild-Sustain” program will address the population’s short and long-term needs in several phases. Phase One will focus on medical supplies, particularly antibiotics, to help control and prevent infectious diseases which could prove catastrophic in the coming weeks. Rosen will place his own people on the ground in Haiti, as well as three fixed-wing aircraft to facilitate delivery of these urgently needed medical supplies, wherever they are needed.

Phase Two will focus on ways to address rebuilding and sustaining, including identifying ways to design and construct sturdier buildings during Haiti’s rebuilding phase. Rosen will soon unveil plans to manufacture and deliver compact, eco-friendly, earthquake-and-hurricane-resistant houses, called “Little Haiti Houses.”  The sustainable homes, ranging from 350- to 700-square feet would be made of metal frame construction and feature rooftop solar panels and a wind turbine for electricity. Ethanol-based fuel for cooking would be derived from sugar cane, jatropha and/or switch grass, which are all easily grown in Haiti. The small family homes would be organized in pods of 100 to 200 and “sold” to Haitian families for approximately $5,000 or less, with full repayment over 50, 75 or 100 years with one percent interest.  Rosen also has plans to open a citizens’ bank in Haiti to receive these payments, which will then be available to make micro loans for small businesses and for new business ventures in Haiti.

Monetary donations to the “Relief-Rebuild-Sustain” program are still being accepted and may be mailed to the Harris Rosen Foundation, memo: Haiti Relief, 9840 International Drive, Orlando, FL  32819. The Harris Rosen Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (FEIN #59-2890420).  For more information, call 407-996-6715 or visit www.rosenhotels.com/haiti.

Due to its competitive wages and outstanding associate benefit program, including the onsite Rosen Medical Center, wellness programs, continuing education and language development programs, Rosen Hotels & Resorts has one of the lowest associate turnover rates in the hotel industry. Funding from the Harris Rosen Foundation has allowed for the creation of the Tangelo Park Project, which provides free preschool, college and vocational education to disadvantaged youth; the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management; and the Jack and Lee Rosen Southwest Orlando Jewish Community Center. The Foundation also contributes to numerous charitable organizations throughout Central Florida and beyond each year.

The Rosen Hotels & Resorts family includes three award-winning convention properties, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre and Rosen Shingle Creek, and four leisure properties in the Orlando tourist corridor, including the Quality Inn International, Quality Inn Plaza and Rodeway Inn International and Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista.

For more information, visit www.rosenhotels.com or call 866-33-ROSEN.