The broadcast e-mail to AT&T's Middletown, New Jersey R&D community began:

On October 8, 2005 an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Pakistan and India. Entire cities, towns and villages collapsed, killing over fifty thousand, injuring many more and leaving millions without shelter, food, clean water and supplies. People in the mountainous regions will soon face harsh Himalayan winter conditions. Relief efforts are facing extremely tough logistical challenges, and the window for providing aid is closing fast. To quote Andrew Macleod, chief operations officer in the United Nations Emergency Coordination Center in Islamabad, from his interview with the New York Times published on October 21: "What they have on 1 December is what they have all winter."

The survivors need your help.

With that, the Southern New Jersey Chapter Disaster Relief Committee announced a two-day campaign to collect donations to help the earthquake victims.

As volunteers devoted their lunch hours on October 24th and 25th to staff tables at three locations on the R&D campus, donors stopped by to drop off checks and cash. Others came away with information on how to donate on-line. In the end, the committee forwarded the following amounts to organizations aiding the affected populations:

• American Red Cross' International Response Fund:  $1,031
• Bilquis Edhi Relief Foundation:  $2,653
• UNICEF:  $635

In a year where humans' choice of where to put down roots were challenged repeatedly and devastatingly by nature's powerful forces, the Southern New Jersey Chapter and the R&D community it serves came together in October to extend aid across the globe.