October 26th

I DON'T TRUST THE AMERICAN RED CROSS!

This is a long standing distrust, dating back to when a friend of mine who had been wounded in the Vietnam War told me about the Red Cross selling candy bars to hospitalized service men, and on the wrappers it said that the candy had been donated. Did the donors know that the RC was going to sell those candy bars to the wounded? I doubt it.

Near San Diego there was a fire in Alpine about seven years ago. The Red Cross actively solicited donations for the victims, collected over $400,000, and spent $50,000 on actual relief.
Story about Alpine fire and the RC
Another Story

There were problems with donations collected after 9/11 also.
RC and 9/11
Google “American Red Cross & scandal” and you will get over 100,000 hits.

Now, another disaster, and here comes the RC again. This time Channel 10 spent a whole day pleading for donations. I was concerned that what the RC actually does and doesn't do wasn't being disclosed, so I sent this email to the reporter who was doing the on-air soliciting:

I'm a bit concerned about your Wildfire Relief campaign and donations to the Red Cross. You said on the air that the donations would be used to help the "uninsured and the under insured", implying that they would help people rebuild. From what I know about the Red Cross (and have heard from their leadership) this is NOT what the Red Cross does. I would really like to have this issue addressed, and perhaps have a spokesperson from the Red Cross actually say that these donations will be used to assist in rebuilding. Otherwise I fear that we will have a repeat of the situation that occurred after the fire in Alpine years ago when $400,000 was donated but less than $100,000 was actually given to victims of that fire.

I got this reply:

Thanks for your e-mail. I did interview the Red Cross CEO. He told me the monies go to helping people rebuild their lives but not their homes. They do help with housing while the rebuilding goes on. No money goes to the running of the Red
Cross. From what I understand, once Jerry Sanders and Ronnie Froeman took over the local office they really turned things, including the accounting practices, around.

I hope this helps explain what they do. I'm glad you brought this to my attention so now I also have a much clearer picture of the scope of what the Red Cross does.

Great! YOU have a clearer picture, but since you haven't said anything on the air do the people who are donating all that money have a clue that NONE of these funds will do anything to rebuild lost homes? And, just exactly what do they mean by “rebuild their lives” if it doesn't include assisting in rebuilding homes? Doesn't Channel 10, if they are soliciting donations, have an obligation to inform potential donors exactly what their money will and will not do, especially in light of the fact that they spent a lot of time in the past few days warning people about charity scams? If people are misled about what their donations are actually going to be used for isn't that just another scam?

If I were an investigative reporter I'd be taking a good look at Channel 10 and the soliciting of donations. I'd find people who donated and ask them if they were aware that their donations would not be going to help rebuild homes. I'm pretty sure that I would find a lot of people were misled by the on-air pleas.

THIS AND THAT

My favorite Channel 10 boo-boo from yesterday: The field reporter who kept telling us, over and over, that people were “fustrated” at not being able to return to their homes in Ramona. It was quite frustrating listening to her.

And, a little news bit that made me smile:

Ramona residents can pick up bottled water at the Ramona rodeo grounds between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The rodeo grounds are located at 421 Aqua Lane. A perfect place to pick up water, Aqua Lane.