Kean Miller Hawthorne D’Armond McCowan & Jarman, LLP has established the “Kean Miller Relief Fund” in association with the Capital Area United Way. The partners in Baton Rouge’s largest law firm seeded the fund with an initial donation of $50,000.00. The announcement was made at a September 8 meeting of the Capital Area United Way and following a presentation by the national CEO of United Way.
About the Kean Miller Relief Fund:
Donations to the Kean Miller Relief Fund will be used to help evacuees in the Capital Region. While the firm initially seeded the fund, future donations by Kean Miller clients and friends will be used to assist various United Way agencies in the Greater Baton Rouge area. The Capital Area United Way provides assistance and services to the many of the most needy Louisianians who are now living and working in our community. “Baton Rouge is our home. After the hurricane hit, we began receiving numerous calls from around the United States. Some came from our Fortune 500 clients, others from clients which are privately held companies, and still others were from large law firms with whom we routinely work. The calls all had one thing in common: What can we do to help Louisiana? Most wanted to know where their donations would have the greatest impact in our community,” said Gary A. Bezet, managing partner of the 105 lawyer firm. “The Kean Miller Relief Fund is designed to answer that question. We know our donation to United Way will make a difference in the lives of the evacuees,” added Bezet.
“Having seeded the fund with our own money,” Bezet continued, “we will now begin to inform our clients and friends that the Kean Miller relief fund provides the perfect mechanism to assure that their donations do the most good in Baton Rouge.”
“The announcement of the Kean Miller Relief Fund has given everyone in our organization a real boost. After two weeks of hard work and sacrifice following Katrina, we at the United Way are heartened by this very generous gift to Baton Rouge. We will use our well-respected funds distribution methods, needs determination skills, and information systems to locate and catalog both resources and expressed needs for service by CAUW to the hundreds of thousands of New Orleans evacuees now living in our community,” said Ken Hinrichs, President and CEO of the Capital Area United Way.
The seed money for the Kean Miller Relief Fund is in addition to the Baton Rouge-based law firm’s donation on September 2, 2005 that helped fund the initial development of the United Way Command Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The United Way Command Center is designed to efficiently and effectively meet the human service needs of Hurricane Katrina victims in the 10 parishes served by Capital Area United Way (CAUW). Contributions to the Kean Miller Relief Fund should be made out to the Capital Area United Way (Kean Miller Relief Fund) and sent to any Kean Miller attorney or to the Capital Area United Way at 700 Laurel Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802, Attn: Kean Miller Relief Fund.
About the United Way Command Center:
The mission of the Command Center is to serve as the primary communication conduit between governmental units working on disaster relief and non-profit agencies delivering services to victims; between businesses that have resources and the non-profit agencies; between non-profit organizations to assure efficient, effective services and use of resources; between non-profit organizations and faith-based organizations in service to disaster victims; and between the media and the non-profit agencies to share information about current and emerging needs with the public so that resources can be assembled.
The Command Center will work closely with the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the Governor’s Office, the Mayor-President’s office, FEMA, VOAD and other governmental bodies. The Command Center will ramp-up service between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Command Center will be staffed with trained professionals whose sole responsibility will be to address the needs of Hurricane Katrina disaster victims and those who serve them.
About the Capital Area United Way:
CAUW serves Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana Parishes. The CAUW serves as the broker to make assets — material, personnel, monetary and information — available to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
For more information, contact Steve Boutwell at 225.389.3736, or steve.boutwell@keanmiller.com