Greetings Community Members!

My name is Andrea King; I am the President of the Red Hook Community Alliance (RHCA). The RHCA is a non-profit community organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the residents of St. Thomas. Our name certainly implies that our main area of interest is the Red Hook area. We do indeed concentrate our efforts toward the community issues that affect the east end of the island of St. Thomas.

My reason for communicating with you today is to ask for your much-needed support. It is RHCA's annual membership renewal time once again and I am providing a RHCA membership application for your convenience.

If you are currently a member of RHCA, please consider renewing you membership this year. If you are not yet a member, or have been a member in the past but have allowed your membership to lapse, I encourage you to re-join our organization. Should you be wondering why RHCA needs your support, these are examples of the many things we have accomplished in the four years we have been in existence, as well as a sampling of some of our future goals:

Our strong government lobbying efforts have brought us success with the following:

• Re-paved Red Hook roadway.
• Crosswalks and safety signage installed.
• Installation of trash barrels, maintained, emptied and paid for by RHCA (in the past three-and-a-half years we have paid over $10,000.00 to keep the trash in the barrels and off the streets of Red Hook. Your generous membership fees have assisted RHCA in this very necessary effort).
• Designation of the Red Hook Salt Pond as a Marine Sanctuary and Wildlife Refuge.
• Relocation of the dumpsters from a dangerous curve to a safer spot where on-coming traffic can be seen both left and right before re-entering the road.
• Design of an environmentally friendly dumpster site which will be the prototype for all dumpster sites on the island (liaison is on-gong with the Virgin Islands government in order to secure the necessary lease and permits for this vital project).
• Preliminary design of a much-needed and affordable East End commuter parking lot.
• Leaders in the lobbying effort to preserve 17 acres of green space at Vessup Beach for future generations of Virgin Islanders and visitors to our island.

The RHCA continues to advocate for the things that will make the Virgin Islands a better place for all of us to live.

Our future goals include:

• Building and managing an affordable commuter parking lot to be located near the dumpster site, paid for by a private sector benefactor.
• A model recycling center next to the dumpster site.
• Creation and maintenance of an educational walk with viewing platforms high-lighting flora and fauna at the Red Hook Salt Pond.
• Lobbying efforts for side walks through Red Hook to provide safety for our school children, residents and visitors.
• Assisting the government with creating Vessup Beach Territorial Park, including a nature hike, picnic areas, garbage collection and maintenance, etc.
• Creating a scholarship fund offering financial assistance to a local high school senior who wishes to concentrate their educational studies in the field of environmental engineering, landscape architecture or another similar subject.
• Liaison between the public and private sectors to open a much-needed East End police substation in Red Hook

The RHCA has been recognized and recently been added to the VI Community Foundations list of non-profits and we now appear in their directory. This may bring some much-needed donations over time; however your financial support is the bread and butter desperately needed to continue RHCA's positive work.

When I founded the RHCA over four years ago, I adopted the following quote by Mahatma Gandhi as our organizations motto: "We must become the change we want to see." No other words can adequately summarize the need for all of us to do our part, however big or small, to make our community all we wish it to be. I encourage you to do your part by sending in your membership application today.