June 2, 2008

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Bill Adams, five-year Disaster Response Services Director for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (www.crwrc.org), was named President of the Board of Directors for National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) at the Association's 16th annual conference in early May.

The 2008 Annual VOAD Conference was held in Little Rock, Ark., from May 5th through 8th, where Adams was elected to replace Tom Hazelwood, U.S. Disaster Coordinator for UMCOR, on the 13-member Board.

Adams says the one-year election "reflects CRWRC's excellent, long-standing reputation among U.S. non-government organizations responding to disaster," such as Catholic Charities U.S.A., the Southern Baptist Convention, the Salvation Army, and the American Red Cross.

Adams is the latest of several CRWRC Disaster Response Directors to hold the National VOAD Board post, including previously elected Presidents and CRWRC-DRS Managers, Michael Bruinooge in the mid-1990s and Neil Molenaar in the mid-1980s.

"Throughout its history," says Molenaar, who has remained active in the Washington State VOAD, "CRWRC Disaster Response Services can be humbly proud of getting into the thick of things....When I look at where NVOAD is today, it truly has made great strides forward in influencing disaster preparedness, response, and recovery....Bill deserves a lot of credit for being placed in this particular national leadership position. With his leadership, he and the National Board can assist NVOAD in attaining even more impact in the coming year."

Under Adams's leadership, CRWRC Disaster Response Services has grown out of the Agency's headquarters into offices in Byron Center, Mich., where a small staff manages more than 2,000 trained volunteers and the housing, repairing, and readying a fleet of 40 vehicles for deployment in a variety of domestic disaster response actions – in hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires and floods.

In the last two years, CRWRC-DRS volunteers have repaired more than 600 homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and sent more than 200 church and youth work groups into the area to assist with clean up and rebuilding, among many other critical responses.

As a part of NVOAD, CRWRC coordinates its responses with forty eight other non-government and church-related organizations, and with Emergency Management representatives from each State and territory in the U.S.

The affiliation improves the organizations' responses by facilitating communication and collaboration, fostering pre-existing relationships, eliminating duplication of services on the ground, and supplementing the response capabilities of government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). While organized in 1970, NVOAD, representing its member agencies, has become a key partner to FEMA in the National Response Plan in preparing for and responding to federally-declared disasters in the U.S.

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee