Amid the vast and vocal contingent of Steelers partisans at the Dec. 18 game at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, some Western Pennsylvania residents had a few hundred kindred spirits on hand, and not just because they waved Terrible Towels.

The 200-plus members of the Steelers-In-Hoboken fan club bring a bit of Black and Gold to North Jersey each NFL game day, and this fall, they brought just over $1,100 to the Carnegie Volunteer Fire and Rescue Bureau for its annual fund-raiser.

In years past, the club has raised money for charities in New Jersey or New York City, but after reading about and seeing the damage in Western Pennsylvania in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, they decided to lend their efforts to their hometown.

"We just thought that we're made up primarily of good Pittsburgh people and some good people in Pittsburgh were hurting," said Matt Logan, a Penn Hills High School graduate who now lives in Hoboken. "It was a no brainer."

Logan said that after some research, the club settled on the Carnegie fire company, which serves 10,000 people in a 1.2-square-mile area, including Carnegie, Scott and Heidelberg.

The club posted pictures on its Web site, www.steelersin-hoboken.com, of the more than $500,000 damage the bureau sustained, including a ladder truck and pumper engine, as well as other pictures of flooding in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Logan said that to his knowledge none of the club members are originally from Carnegie, and some members have never been to Western Pennsylvania. Over a four-game period earlier this season, the club passed the hat and raised a total of $1,125 for relief efforts.

Logan sent the check, along with a letter, that read: "If anyone can get through this, it's people from Western Pa. We're hard-working, tough and good. And our club takes pride in living these values out in our neck of the woods."

The club's Web site says it is "dedicated to the advancement of Pittsburgh Steelers culture."

Now in its fifth year, the club usually gathers to watch Steelers games at a bar in Frank Sinatra's hometown of Hoboken, but chartered a bus to make the short trip to East Rutherford for the showdown between Big Ben and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Their next charitable event will be visiting Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis in jail, Logan quipped.