NAB Houses, Donates Toys To Hurricane Refugees

NAB's Dennis Wharton and Convention Center Mgr. VJ Barre Hand Out Toys

During this year's NAB Radio Show, the City of AUSTIN has also set up one of four area shelters for about 1,200 HURRICANE IKE evacuees at the facility. The NAB also helped with the City’s hurricane relief efforts by donating several hundred toys and games to the evacuee children currently housed at the convention center.

About 1,200 hurricane evacuees from the HOUSTON/GALVESTON area are being sheltered at the AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER as part of the relief effort by the City of AUSTIN and the AMERICAN RED CROSS OF CENTRAL TEXAS. The shelter was set up and in full operation by MONDAY, SEPT. 15th.

NAB representatives and CONVENTION CENTER staff helped distribute the toys to the children in the shelter. The assortment included puzzles, games, books, Lincoln logs, Legos, cars, trucks, dolls, balls, coloring books, Play-Doh, and cards. "Things are going exceptionally well," AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER Dept. Dir. MARK TESTER said. "Every effort is being made to make the evacuees as comfortable as possible. We have been able to keep the groups cordoned off from one another, giving the evacuees as much privacy as possible. At the same time, the show organizers for NAB have responded to the plight of the residents from the HOUSTON-GALVESTON area."

Photo Cutline: Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, and VJ Barre, sales manager for the Austin Convention Center, handed out hundreds of toys to children who were evacuated to the Austin Convention Center. Radio broadcasters across America are meeting this week in Austin for the annual NAB Radio Show.

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