Contact:
9/17/2001 -- --
Sept. 17th, 2001
Washington, DC
Dear TU Members and Supporters,
All of you have heard many times by now that the world changed on Tuesday, September 11. Nothing I can say will diminish the shock and grief that we all feel in the wake of the horrific and barbaric attacks on New York and Washington and, in a broader sense, on our entire nation. Nevertheless, to those of you who lost loved ones or friends, I want to express my deepest sympathies.
I also want to send my thanks and appreciation to the many calls of concern we received about our national staff. Our national office is barely a mile from the Pentagon and we share our building with a U.S. Air Force department that has been temporarily relocated from the Pentagon.
Even before it caught up the rest of the nation, the attack on the Pentagon understandably sent shock waves through everyone who was at the office on Tuesday morning. Along with thanking everyone in the national office for their steadfastness and fortitude, I want to recognize Steve Moyer, Nancy Nelson, and Rebecca Besant, all of whom made extra efforts last week to coordinate communications throughout the entire organization.
We will have many challenges to surmount during the coming weeks and months; we will also need to reckon with the impacts of last week's attack and its aftermath on our organization's operations. While we are just beginning to sort through the implications of last week's events for TU, I want to assure everyone that we will continue to coordinate our efforts to ensure that TU remains as strong and effective as it can be under what will undoubtedly be very different and will likely be very difficult circumstances.
Trout Unlimited is fortunate to have the human resources it does. In a sense, we are a microcosm of our great country, with people in so many places vitally engaged in accomplishing our mission. I am confident that we and the nation will be able to endure this crisis and that TU will continue delivering on the promise inherent in its mission: to conserve, protect, and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.
Charles F. Gauvin
President
Chief Executive Officer
Date: 9/17/2001