© 2002 1st Special Response Group.
All rights reserved.

The 1st Special Response Group is a not-for-profit NGO organization operated by the Western Disaster Center, Inc., a California public benefit, 501(c)(3), nonprofit corporation. Contributions are tax deductible. 1SRG is an all-volunteer rapid deployment, first response unit, with a primary mission to respond to disaster situations, both natural and man-made, plus traditional search and rescue incidents. 1SRG also provides training in a variety of areas related to search and rescue to assist organizations in developing self-sufficiency. 1SRG is available worldwide upon request of any government agency or international aid organization. Due to our non-profit, all volunteer status, the team is very dependent on donations of money and equipment from altruistic individuals and corporations to support our efforts.

One of the most significant costs in any deployment is expense associated with last minute, international travel. Please see our page dedicated to this subject.

Benefits to the Donors:

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded." (anonymous)

It is impossible to measure the value of knowing that you've contributed to saving someone's life, or to enhancing a community's self sufficiency, or to helping your global neighbors that you see suffering on CNN.

In addition to pure good will, we will work with corporate sponsors on joint press releases, articles in newsletters, space on this web site, and other appropriate public relations support.


Some of our more notable contributions are:

The Jaffe Fund - The family and friends of Randy Jaffe asked that funds be donated to the 1st Special Response Group in lieu of sending flowers to Randy Jaffe's memorial. We've used these funds to establish the Jaffe Fund. These funds are used only to offset the deployment costs of the team to ensure that we will always be able to deploy on a legitimate mission. Your donations to this fund directly affect our ability to save lives.

Quantas Airlines - Donation of two international tickets during deployment to Fiji.

Land Info, Inc - Land Info provides data for our GIS (mapping) efforts. Accurate maps are extremely important to our operations and their ability to provide topographic maps, digital imagery, and other GIS data at the last moment for most anywhere in the world is extremely helpful. (Link) [09/01/03 - Land Info is going out of business. This remains to continue to thank them for their assistance and demonstrate one of the types of support that we need.]

Veterinarians (general) - Many veterinarians around the country have opened up their clinics during off hours to provide our canine members with the required health certificates for international travel.

Four Seasons Belgian Shepherd Dog Club - Donation of the proceeds from their 2001 Silent Auction.



A variety of vendors go above and beyond normal expectations to support the 1st Special Response Group through discounts, donations, their willingness to go the extra mile for us. We strongly encourage other teams and individuals to support these vendors through your patronage. Some vendors, while not standing out above the crowd for other reasons, simply have good products at a good price.

We would like to thank these vendors as well.

Alameda Discount Centre

510-865-2990 1708
Lincoln Avenue
Alameda, CA 94501
MRE's with heaters

Dallas Fire Department

Generously provided the full Rescue Systems 1 course to several of our members.

Gear 911

PO Box 1148, Fresno, CA 93715-1148
Toll Free: 1-800-435-2103
Carry on and shipped cargo gear bags for team members.

REO Rescue

REO Rescue provides very high quality technical rescue instruction in a number of areas. They have provided at-cost training for 1SRG members for many years.

http://www.reorescue.com/

Systran provides software that translates to and from a variety of languages. We have found it quite useful for tracking discussions in newsgroups conducted in foreign languages, translating foreign web sites, and even for interviewing non-English speakers.

They donated a copy of the software and it is now running on the laptop that goes on all of our deployments.

"SYSTRAN is the leading provider of the world's most scalable and modular translation architecture. Its core technology powers revolutionary translation solutions for the Internet, PCs and network infrastructures that facilitate communication in 35 language pairs and in 20 specialized domains. "