Ted Honcharik, President of Pacific Tank Lines saw relatives' homes in Florida destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.....

Ted Honcharik, President of Pacific Tank Lines saw relatives' homes in Florida destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. "I wasn't in a position then to do much," Honcharik said, "But the devastation made a huge impact, and when Hurricane Katrina came along, I knew I had to act."
By 2005, the year Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans, Ted Honcharik was the owner and president of Pacific Tank Lines, a petroleum supply business based in Riverside, Ca. He sent a truck filled with fuel and a driver to Mississippi, and he joined the driver there to fuel cars and fill gas cans for generators as they slowly made their way into New Orleans.
Just a year ago, Honcharick formed a 501 (c)3 non profit FUEL RELIEF FUND to help disaster victims obtain fuel for basic survival. When the recent earthquake in Haiti toppled buildings and, by some accounts, killed over 200,000 people, Fuel Relief Fund Volunterrs, including Ted and his daughters, were there within days to help. Along with a Massachusetts-based relief group, Honcharik rode a bus from the Dominican Republic for 12-1/2 hours to get to Port Au Prince, where he found a vegatable oil delivery truck and retrofitted it to hold diesel fuel. Riverside's The Press-Enterprise ran an article under the headline "Riverside Company Helps Keep the lights on in Haiti Through Its Nonprofit." The article told how Honarchik and other Fuel Relief Fund volunteers drove around Haiti's ravaged cities looking for lights because where there were lights, there were bound to be generators that needed fuel.
"When disasters strike, everyone thinks first of food, water and medical care and, of course, those are life's neccessities. But somehow this food, water and care must get to isolated victims- or visa versa- and medical emergencies don't just happen in the daytime," Honcharick pointed out. Fuel is one of the necessary basics of disaster relief."
Ted Honcharik's goal is to grow Fuel Relief Fund through individual and corporate donations, and he anticipates the day that USAID comes on board. "I hope a major oil company will recognize what a good idea it is to donate to the FUND," he says. In the meantime, he's raised over $50,000 and spent weeks as a hands-on volunteer to supply fuel and return electricity to earthquake - shattered Haiti.

- Kathy Renn, Fuel Relief Fund
Riverside, California