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Special Report: Aftermath of Terror
Volunteerism in U.S. Surges
Following Terrorist Attacks
By KELLY GREENE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
Chuck Robinson, a retired Anaheim, Calif., firefighter and avid fisherman, heard on his car radio Sept. 13 that food was needed to feed rescue workers in New York. He dashed off an Internet plea to fellow anglers, and two days later 2,500 pounds of vacuum-packed fish were sitting in his front yard.
Across the country, individuals like Mr. Robinson are struggling to find something they can do in response to the terrorist attacks, rather than just writing a check to charity or giving blood. The result is a surge in what might be called entrepreneurial volunteerism.
"In a moment of collective grief and pain, instead of being immobilized, we have a society of doers," says James Austin, a Harvard Business School professor who studies social enterprise. "The number of individual and small-group acts are really extraordinary in the aggregate. It's much like what we see with the contributions of small businesses to the overall economy."
In past crises, such as during World War II, many charitable efforts on the home front started as top-down efforts by the federal government and other national institutions: war-bond sales, steel drives and so forth. In 2001, individuals are driving support from the bottom up.
In just the past two weekends, for example, four sisters in Annandale, Va., whose father works at the Pentagon, raised $20,000 for the Red Cross by running car washes. "I don't think I had seen that much money together in my entire life," says Ashley Welch, 16 years old, the oldest sister. A Washington, D.C., public-relations firm noticed their work and helped set up a Web site (www.washamerica.org) to get other children involved. So far, car washes are in the works in 10 additional states.
Some fund-raisers have been conceived in part to console grieving friends. Marlene Stuart, co-owner of a suburban Atlanta restaurant, noticed a regular customer, Eugene Reilly, in tears the day after the attacks. He had grown up in Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's West Side, he told her, and counted many of the firefighters who had been killed among his childhood heroes. He also lost a cousin and three friends in the rubble. Marlene and her husband, Lee Stuart, quickly decided to host an "All American Cookout" last Sunday. For his part, Mr. Reilly and his friends quickly lined up a dozen bands, food and a shuttle service -- all provided free of charge. The result: $50,000 in donations for families of New York Fire Department's Rescue Co. No. 1.
The staying power of such efforts, of course, will likely track the progress of Washington's war on terrorism. But some entrepreneurs already are looking to the future.
Mr. Robinson -- still searching for a way to get 4,000 pounds of tuna, mahi-mahi and the like to New York -- plans to use some of the food for a fund-raising dinner Oct. 24 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Newport Beach, Calif. His informal charity, now called "Fish for America," also has opened a bank account for donations, is building a Web site and has an offer from a lawyer to set up a nonprofit corporation. "We're realizing there's a constant flow of fish that could be channeled to emergencies, disasters and soup kitchens," says Mr. Robinson.