"Verizon employees are always quick to provide humanitarian aid in the wake of tragic events. Matching disaster relief funding encourages employees' instinctive kindness, but it also triples the net amount going to some of the most needy areas," said Patrick Gaston (pictured), president of the Verizon Foundation, as he announced that the Foundation has started a 2-to-1 match for every dollar donated by Verizon employees to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts in New Orleans and sections of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

More than $1.2 million was raised in the first day as part of this special disaster relief campaign. The total consists of more than $400,000 in employee contributions and more than $800,000 in matching funds from the Verizon Foundation.

Employees are logging on to the Verizon Foundation or the corporate intranet Web sites and making their pledges in response to one of the worst natural disasters to hit the United States.

 "Our hearts go out to all those affected by Hurricane Katrina, and we continue to explore ways we can lend our human, technological and philanthropic strengths to relief efforts."

Verizon is also making it possible for its customers to donate to the Red Cross through clicking on the link to Red Cross on the Verizon.com and VerizonWireless.com Web sites.

Also, Verizon Wireless customers can donate to relief efforts via text-messaging from their wireless devices.

More information is available at http://www.verizon.com/foundation.