Lutheran World Relief

Lutheran World Relief, a nonprofit agency which operates and funds development and relief efforts in 50 countries, said yesterday that it will shift its world headquarters to Baltimore from New York City.While the move will result in just 25 jobs coming to the city, Baltimore officials said the decision has a larger, symbolic value because it involves yet another major relief agency having chosen Baltimore as its headquarters.The agency, which had a 1996 budget of $19.3 million, hasn't selected a specific location for its headquarters, but fully expects to set up operations inside the city, said Jonathan Frerichs, a spokesman for Lutheran World Relief.

Despite the rain, snow and blustery wind Saturday, a crowd of more than 100 robed clergy and their congregants surrounded the 18-foot-tall bronze statue of Martin Luther that overlooks Lake Montebello and recreated the original unveiling service from 75 years ago. "Where he lived, there was lots of snow all the time," joked Bishop Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane, leader of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "This would not have deterred him. " The crowd, which tried to stay dry underneath two tents and umbrellas, followed the program of the statue's dedication on Oct. 31, 1936, offering the same prayers and intoning the same hymns.

WHILE BALTIMORE has been aswirl with news about competing mega-hotels and downtown office towers that would rise 30 stories or more, two nonprofit organizations from New York are quietly making progress on a smaller but important office project overlooking the Inner Harbor.After months of design and planning, Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are preparing to begin construction by summer on a six-level office building in the 700 block of Light St. that will serve as the groups' new international headquarters.

They're poised to help, but how? The disaster relief agencies based in Baltimore, and those who donate to them, say they are ready to provide whatever assistance they can to the victims of the disaster in Japan. But for the moment, they are largely in a wait-and-see mode. "There is a role for relief efforts, for sure," said Bill Canny, director of emergency operations for Catholic Relief Services, one of several relief agencies headquartered here. "But right now, they don't need a team flying in. " Unlike some recent disasters, the earthquake followed by a tsunami and a still-threatening nuclear reactor emergency have struck a developed country with a strong infrastructure — from a well-prepared and well-financed government and military to experienced and well-funded relief institutions such as the Japan Red Cross.

Two worldwide Lutheran agencies will open their headquarters in Baltimore's Inner Harbor today, continuing the march of nonprofit headquarters to the city.Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Immigration and Relief Service, known as LIRS, moved into their new quarters at 700 Light St. during the weekend.The organizations, previously based in New York, will bring about 70 jobs to Baltimore."Now that this day has come, I think everybody who's making the move is really happy," said Jonathan Frerichs, a spokesman for Lutheran World Relief.

Helen Del Brocco collects slivers of used soap -- some as thin as wafers -- 3,100 pounds over 15 years so far.The slivers are taken to a center in New Windsor where they are packed into large containers and shipped to Third World countries.Mrs. Del Brocco, 77, began collecting the soap in March 1979 after reading an article that said Peace Lutheran Church in Ferndale was collecting soap slivers to send abroad.She then read a pamphlet from Lutheran World Relief that talked about the soap being sent to refugees who were building homes in Tanzania, to farmers who were struggling to eke out a living from Brazil's depleted soil and to the unemployed and homeless in India's cities.

On January 15, 2010 FRANK PAUL LIERSEMANN, SR., beloved husband of Shirley Jane Liersemann; loving father of Rev. F. Paul Liersemann, Jr.; dear grandfather of Sarah S. Gleason and her husband Christopher, Aaron P. Liersemann and his fiancee Lyndi and John A. Liersemann and his wife Jaclyn; loving great-grandfather of Joshua and Zachary Gleason. A Memorial Service will be held at Calvary Lutheran Church Sunday 4 p.m. Inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Lutheran World Relief, www.lwr.

WHEN LUTHERAN World Relief began contemplating alternatives to its leased headquarters in Manhattan, it focused on Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Baltimore -- and New York. The latter two were finalists in the site selection which recently ended in Baltimore's favor. A key reason, according to LWR President Kathryn Wolford, was that "board members greatly appreciated Baltimore's recognition of the importance of non-profit organizations in their community."For several years now, the Baltimore city government and the private sector have been trying to lure more non-profit organizations here.

Fire leaves woman, 3 girls homelessA two-alarm fire at 1702 Hoke Road in New Windsor left a 33-year-old woman and her three daughters homeless Saturday afternoon.The blaze, which firefighters contained in about 20 minutes, began in the living room of the one-story, wood-frame rancher at 2:12 p.m., said Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor.No one was injured in the fire, Mr. Taylor said.The residents -- Karen Marie Tarr and her daughters, age 3, 6 and 12 -- were not home at the time, having spent the night at a relative's home next door, Mr. Taylor said.

On Sunday, October 2, 2005, DOROTHY ELLEN De WITT (nee Crout), 90, died at Alterra Clare Bridge in Cary, NC. A native of Baltimore, MD, Mrs. De Witt was retired from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. After her retirement, she moved to Chapel Hill to be close to her family. She was an active member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and was co-founder of the Quilter's Group, which provides quilts for Lutheran World Relief and local families in need. She was involved in the Daughters of the American Revolution in both Baltimore and Chapel Hill.

Locally based relief agencies are weighing what they might do to help victims of the earthquake in Chile, but said Monday that they had no plans to shift their principal focus from long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. While the 8.8-magnitude quake that struck Chile early Saturday was stronger than the one that rocked Haiti in January, Lutheran World Relief's Hayley Hontos said, the South American nation is unlikely to require nearly as much support. "Chile is Latin America's most developed country and they're highly capable of dealing with a situation like this," said Hontos, special projects coordinator for the Baltimore-based agency.

Haitian folk artists have long fashioned sequins, beads and recycled cloth backings into ornate, colorful flags depicting island deities. Said to offer protection to those who display them, the flags have been working overtime here in Baltimore since the catastrophic earthquake Jan. 12 - offering protection in a way that says as much about local generosity as the flags' spiritual powers. Since the earthquake struck, Sideshow, the gift shop at the American Visionary Art Museum, has raised some $15,000 through sales of the ceremonial flags and other pieces of Haitian folk art. Operator Ted Frankel, who makes two or three trips a year to Haiti in search of material for the shop, has been sending all proceeds back to the Caribbean nation and the artists themselves.

Haitian folk artists have long fashioned sequins, beads and recycled cloth backings into ornate, colorful flags depicting island deities. Said to offer protection to those who display them, the flags have been working overtime here in Baltimore since the catastrophic earthquake Jan. 12 - offering protection in a way that says as much about local generosity as the flags' spiritual powers. Since the earthquake struck, Sideshow, the gift shop at the American Visionary Art Museum, has raised some $15,000 through sales of the ceremonial flags and other pieces of Haitian folk art. Operator Ted Frankel, who makes two or three trips a year to Haiti in search of material for the shop, has been sending all proceeds back to the Caribbean nation and the artists themselves.

Two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince, U.S. relief organizations in Baltimore and beyond have collected more than $380 million for Haiti, an outpouring of support unprecedented for a foreign disaster. With the images from Haiti still dominating news coverage and advances in technology allowing more ways to give, fundraising for Haiti has more than doubled the record pace set in the days following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported Friday.

On January 15, 2010 FRANK PAUL LIERSEMANN, SR., beloved husband of Shirley Jane Liersemann; loving father of Rev. F. Paul Liersemann, Jr.; dear grandfather of Sarah S. Gleason and her husband Christopher, Aaron P. Liersemann and his fiancee Lyndi and John A. Liersemann and his wife Jaclyn; loving great-grandfather of Joshua and Zachary Gleason. A Memorial Service will be held at Calvary Lutheran Church Sunday 4 p.m. Inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Lutheran World Relief, www.lwr.

The horrific images of collapsed buildings and rows of decomposing bodies lying in the streets of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, have left no doubt as to the magnitude of the human catastrophe that occurred there. One of the worst natural disasters this hemisphere has seen in recent memory, the most powerful earthquake to strike Haiti in 200 years, has hit squarely in the nation least able to cope with it. Haiti has long been the poorest nation in the Americas, and years of dictatorship and corruption have made it especially vulnerable to such a calamity and unable to recover on its own. Within hours of Tuesday's quake, President Barack Obama pledged to assist in the massive international relief effort now under way. Owing to Haiti's proximity and the country's long historical ties to America, it's clear the U.S. must take the lead in search-and-rescue operations and in the reconstruction of Haiti's devastated infrastructure.

One of the last available development sites around Baltimore's Inner Harbor has been selected as the future setting for the international headquarters of Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, two nonprofit organizations that are moving from New York.The site is a vacant lot on the west side of the 700 block of Light St., near Key Highway, in the Inner Harbor West urban renewal area. The land is owned by Christ Lutheran Church, whose sanctuary is one block west at 701 S. Charles St.The Lutheran organizations intend to lease the land from the church and begin construction this spring on a headquarters building that will open next year, according to Stephen Tepperman, a principal of Kelly, Legan & Gerard Inc., a business location strategist that has been working with Lutheran World Relief.

Tonight, 3,000 families in sub-Saharan Africa will mourn the deaths of their children. A similar number mourned yesterday; the same number will mourn tomorrow and the next day as drug-resistant strains of malaria claim more lives. Malaria's deadly march has been unrelenting, killing on average 1 million people each year, mostly women and small children, and infecting 500 million in the poor regions of the world. If the mosquito-borne disease is not checked, it could replace AIDS as the No. 1 killer in the developing world.