Director's Welcome

Dr. Tom Matthews is President and Chair of the Board of Directors. Livingston CARES was organized in 2005 as a humanitarian organization dedicated to Hurricane Katrina and other relief and recovery efforts. Since September 2005, 1,508 volunteers from SUNY Geneseo and Livingston County, New York have participated in ninety service trips to the Biloxi and Gulfport area of Mississippi, Staten Island, Long Island, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico to help rebuild homes and assist community organizations affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters.  

Livingston CARES is a unique community partnership among representatives from SUNY Geneseo, the Town and Village of Geneseo, the Livingston County Chamber of Commerce, and the Livingston County Administrator and Board of Supervisors. Formed as a collaboration dedicated to helping in the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, Livingston CARES is a non-profit charitable humanitarian organization registered with the State of New York Charities Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization. In addition to our previous work on multiple recovery efforts in Mississippi, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, CARES assists other humanitarian organizations as needed and as volunteers and resources become available.

Our current efforts are focused on providing assistance to families impacted by the 2020 hurricanes, unfinished work from Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the 2020 western fires. Visit our  Service Trip Opportunity page if you are interested in service trips. Examples of our recent trips are posted. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are in a holding pattern for 2021 service trips. When we are able to resume service trips, we will post the opportunities on the website and send newsletter announcements to the campus community. 

In addition to information on trips and programs, our website serves as a record of past trips with hundreds of photos of volunteers working in Mississippi and other service trips from participants on how their lives have changed as a result of helping others.

If you would like to make a donation, checks should be made payable to "Livingston CARES" and sent to our address. We also accept donations by credit or debit cards and Venmo. Currently, donations may also be designated for for recovery efforts for 2020 hurricanes and the western fires. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me at matthews@geneseo.edu or contact Nick Palumbo at palumbon@genseo.edu or Mackenzie DeRider at mderider@geneseo.edu questions or with any questions or suggestions. 

Thank you very much for your continued support,

Dr. Tom Matthews
President & Chair, Board of Directors, Livingston County CARES