Two DeKalb County citizens have been in New York City since last week to assist in the clean-up and recovery effort after Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

Andrea Rusin, of DeKalb and Meg Corcoran, of Shabbona, both with the DeKalb County Chapter of the American Red Cross, volunteered to go to New York to offer their assistance. They left last Wednesday.

“They will be there for at least three weeks,” said Karen Remen, director of the DeKalb Red Cross chapter. “But they will probably be there longer.”

Remen said the two DeKalb County residents are not the only area citizens who want to volunteer to help.

“We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” Remen said. “Everyone wants to know what they can do. Some want to go to New York, but you have to be specially trained by the American Red Cross to do that.”

The local Red Cross chapter has been active in the community, coordinating various blood drives and having volunteers collect funds in various locations, including at the King Memorial Commons here at NIU.

Remen said the volunteer donation collections still are being counted. And because of the success of the nationwide blood donation campaign, the only need that the Red Cross has is monetary.

“The main need right now is financial donations,” Remen said. “We don’t need any more blood right now. They called us from New York and told us that we didn’t need any more blood.”