The City of New Orleans is a special place. For over 200 years its been a destination like no other. Whether it's for Mardi Gras, a Superbowl, the annual Sugar Bowl  game, or just a family vacation, the Crescent City has been a gracious host to millions of visitors from all over the world. Now it needs our help. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The rebuilding may take decades. In an attempt to help, ProTrainz donated 50% of all proceeds from our City of New Orleans/Panama Limited pack from the time it went on sale until Thanksgiving 2005. During that period we raised $100 with your help, however it's not too late to lend a hand. Simply follow the link below to the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund's website, and you can make a tax deductible* donation.

Why the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund? This non-sectarian fund is dedicated to the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast following the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. While there are other relief funds, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and they all do good work, we felt it best that if we were going to donate money on the behalf of our customers that it should go to a fund with no religious affiliations, as we've no idea, nor do we care what the religious beliefs of our customers are, and we don't wish to offend any accidentally. The Red Cross is a Christian organization, and the Salvation Army itself is actually a church. While we personally support the work of both organizations, we decided the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund would be the best choice for our donation.

Getting the pack out in time to still have an impact proved tricky. Not only did we have to create many new models (including an E8 with a working Mars light), and ensure that they were fully compatible with both TRS2004 and TRS2006, but shortly prior to placing the pack for sale we discovered that our online store wasn't working. We'd been searching for a new solution which would allow us to sell both virtual (downloadable) and physical products (CD's), as the old store only handled downloadable items, and apparently one of the programs we installed (I'm thinking it was OSCommerce) overwrote part of our store's database, rendering it inoperable. Of course, this meant finding, installing, customizing and testing a new e-commerce package in a matter of days. When the dust finally settled, we had a working version of Zen-Cart installed, and other than a slight checkbox glitch, working, which was a pretty amazing feat if I do say so myself.

Our donation was made 11/28/05. After subtracting trial sales which we'd made to verify that our new online store was functioning correctly, and 2 additional sales which had to be refunded when we discovered that it wasn't (if users didn't check a box to select "downloadable" they didn't get a download link after purchase. Both customers re-purchased the pack after we issued a refund, and the entire store is running smoothly now), we sold 20 copies of the City of New Orleans/Panama Limited Pack during the promotional period which ended on Thanksgiving, giving us $100 towards the Hurricane Relief effort. The donation had to be made in my name (there was no provision for a company donation on their website), but it wouldn't have been made possible without your help.

What follows is the contents of the E-mail receipt I received for the donation (unnecessary line breaks and my mailing address have been removed, and the formatting has been modified by the CSS):

Thank you for your generous gift to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.

Your contribution will immediately be used to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina throughout the Gulf Coast region.

You are helping your fellow Americans begin to recover and rebuild their lives after this devastating disaster.

Unless otherwise requested, your name will appear on the Wall of Contributors.

We will post additional information on www.BushClintonKatrinaFund.org in the coming days and weeks.

Thank you again for your donation to this important endeavor.

Please print this page for your records. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law as no goods or services have be en exchanged.

Donations made through this page are contributions to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund of the William J. Clinton Foundation. The Foundation is a public charity exempt from income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations to the Foundation are deductible as charitable contributions. See our FAQs for more information.

Thank you for your generous gift to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Your contribution will immediately be used to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina throughout the Gulf Coast region. You are helping your fellow Americans begin to recover and rebuild their lives after this devastating disaster. Unless otherwise requested, your name will appear on the Wall of Contributors. We will post additional information on www.BushClintonKatrinaFund.org in the coming days and weeks. Thank you again for your donation to this important endeavor. Please print this page for your records. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law as no goods or services have been exchanged. Donations made through this page are contributions to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund of the William J. Clinton Foundation. The Foundation is a public charity exempt from income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations to the Foundation are deductible as charitable contributions. See our FAQs for more information.
The following summarizes your contribution:
Total Commitment Amount: $100.00
Reference ID: 27712469

If you have technical questions, please submit them to http://customersupport.kintera.org

*The tax deductible nature of your donation may vary based upon your geographical location and tax status. If you've any questions, we suggest you contact an accountant or other certified tax expert.