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WHEREAS, Team Tassy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Pittsburgh, with strong ties to Pittsburgh’s North Side. Team Tassy assists residents of the two poorest neighborhoods in Port au Prince, Haiti-Menelas and Cite de Soleil-in breaking the cycle of devastating poverty by working with them to obtain and retain family sustaining jobs; and,
WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh has deep historical ties with assisting the residents of Haiti, and whereas residents of the North Side and its predecessor, Allegheny City, have likewise looked outside national borders to alleviate the suffering of others. America’s premier philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, began his charitable career on Ridge Avenue in the 1800’s, while more recently Allegheny General Hospital, Team Tassy, Brother’s Brother Foundation, Pittsburgh Kids Foundation and City of Asylum are North Side-based organizations which routinely work in assisting the impoverished and oppressed overseas; and,
WHEREAS, Team Tassy’s work traces directly to the efforts of its founder, Ian Rosenberger, and the efforts of a North Side institution, Allegheny General Hospital. After the devastating earthquake of 2010, Ian had agreed to assist Tassy Fils Aime, a teenager from Cite de Soleil who was suffering with a grapefruit-sized tumor on his jaw which, if left untreated, would slowly kill him. Allegheny General Hospital agreed to perform life-saving surgery on Tassy, and a team of surgeons, led by ENT specialist James Blaugrund, M.D., offered their services free of charge; and,
WHEREAS, another North Side Institution, the Priory Hotel, assisted Ian and Team Tassy in raising the tens of thousands of dollars for transportation and incidental costs for Tassy’s surgery through an event, A Night for Tassy; and,
WHEREAS, after Tassy’s successful surgery, Ian and Team Tassy realized that the only way to prevent residents of Menelas and Cite de Soleil from such suffering medical conditions like that of Tassy Fils Aime was to break the cycle of poverty, which means working with families to find and maintain family-sustaining jobs; and,
WHEREAS, the Priory Hotel currently hosts a major annual fundraiser for Team Tassy each year, the Black Jack Spectacular; and,
WHEREAS, this Council wishes to recognize the North Side’s long and durable relationship with Haiti, and in particular the neighborhoods of Cite de Soleil and Menelas, and to give official recognition of the powerful ties that bind these localities; and,
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby proclaim that Pittsburgh’s North Side and the Port au Prince localities of Cite de Soleil and Menelas are sister neighborhoods, and does also encourage the work of Allegheny General Hospital, the Priory Hotel and other North Side residents and business to support the residents of Cite de Soleil and Menelas in accordance with the long tradition of North Siders’ generosity in aiding those less fortunate.