Great news – we rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange this Monday April 6, in celebration of our 10th anniversary!

Check out our press release below.

Press Release:

Vietnam Relief Effort Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary By Ringing New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Closing Bell

NEW YORK, N.Y., April 2, 2009 – Vietnam Relief Effort (VRE), a 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in New York, is pleased to announce that it will ring the ceremonial closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday April 6, 2009. The event marks the 10-year anniversary of the nonprofit’s founding.

Chinh Chu, a co-founder of VRE and a Senior Managing Director at The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) will ring the closing bell. Other Directors present at the ceremony will be: John Altorelli; Thien Le; Steven Nguyen; Truc To; and Jonathan Wall.

"We are pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of VRE," says Mr. Chu. "Through the generous donations of our supporters and the hard work of our team, we have been able to positively impact the lives of a large number of families in Asia and the U.S."

VRE began in 1999. After a devastating flood surged through central Vietnam, killing 736 people and displacing more than 1.6 million others, a group of Vietnamese-Americans took to the phones and began raising money to buy rice, blankets and other supplies, and personally distribute it to the affected villagers.

Since then, VRE has grown in size and expanded in reach. It has built scores of schools and infrastructure benefiting thousands of children, and it has provided scholarships to hundreds of the poorest families to allow them to pursue an education. It has brought doctors and nurses to remote villages, and provided thousands of children at the schools it's built with much-needed medical check-ups, medicine and provisions.

For more information about VRE, please visit www.vietnamrelief.org.

Vietnam Relief Effort (VRE) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that seeks to bring aid to impoverished regions of Vietnam through education-oriented, healthcare, microfinance and disaster relief projects.

SOURCE Vietnam Relief Effort