Author Topic: where we put our relief cash  (Read 546 times)

Offline airbumba

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where we put our relief cash
« on: September 04, 2005, 10:35:31 PM »
I talked my bro's as well as my family into it, and we be puttin half a weeks salary each into aid. But seeing the state of application of aid, we was wonderin where to put the cash.

Considerin one of my brothers owns a 45 employee company, we've raised a good bit, but we really want to get a bang for our buck, hence the question.

Where's the best place to put it? A local org., which might know the direct needs better but lack the transport infrastructure to get it to the people. A National org., where our funds will be diluted and not be affective for a few weeks?Where, and with what org?

What ya think?

If it were me, I'd donate all of it to the US Coast Guard! These folk are my heros. While everyone else is either holdin press conferences to complain, or press conferences to pat each other on the back for a job yet completed, the Coast Guard dudes were quietly going about their business, hour after hour, day after day saving THOUSANDS of lives.

From me and all my family, THE US COAST GUARD rocks!!!!!

We them, whole heartedly.
I used to be a fatalist,
but that part of me died.

Offline Shifty

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Re: where we put our relief cash
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2005, 10:49:22 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by airbumba


From me and all my family, THE US COAST GUARD rocks!!!!!

We them, whole heartedly.


I second that Airbumba

As far as where to send your money. You might consider the American Red Cross or Salvation Army. However calling somebody in the Canadian government , about where to send your money might be the best bet. Your own govt may have connections with the U.S. Govt on what agency needs the help the most.  I know very little of Canada so I have no idea where you live in relation to say New York. But they may be getting  hurricane victims up there soon.

We are filling up down here in Texas. The church I go to has been hosting people since Wednesday. We're at 230 and thats all we can handle. The Jr High Gym, where my youngest son attends school is holding another 250 or so. The Gov of Texas said today that they were going to have to start air lifting victims to other states. So there may soon be some living close to the Canadian border.
You just want to be sure your gift gets used properly.

Bless you for what your doing these people are down hard and need all the help we can give them.:aok

JG-11"Black Hearts"...nur die Stolzen, nur die Starken

"Haji may have blown my legs off but I'm still a stud"~ SPC Thomas Vandeventer Delta1/5 1st CAV

Offline Vulcan

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Re: where we put our relief cash
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2005, 10:53:12 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by airbumba
I talked my bro's as well as my family into it, and we be puttin half a weeks salary each into aid. But seeing the state of application of aid, we was wonderin where to put the cash.

Considerin one of my brothers owns a 45 employee company, we've raised a good bit, but we really want to get a bang for our buck, hence the question.

Where's the best place to put it? A local org., which might know the direct needs better but lack the transport infrastructure to get it to the people. A National org., where our funds will be diluted and not be affective for a few weeks?Where, and with what org?

What ya think?

If it were me, I'd donate all of it to the US Coast Guard! These folk are my heros. While everyone else is either holdin press conferences to complain, or press conferences to pat each other on the back for a job yet completed, the Coast Guard dudes were quietly going about their business, hour after hour, day after day saving THOUSANDS of lives.

From me and all my family, THE US COAST GUARD rocks!!!!!

We them, whole heartedly.


I'd go with the Coast Guard. Put it directly into an organisation that you can easily judge and see the activity in is the best bet. Unfortunately a lot of "charities" donation to what gets to the victim ratio is very low. NZ Coast Guard is one of the few charities that gets anything from me.

Offline airbumba

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Re: Re: where we put our relief cash
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2005, 11:09:11 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Shifty
I second that Airbumba

As far as where to send your money. You might consider the American Red Cross or Salvation Army. However calling somebody in the Canadian government , about where to send your money might be the best bet. Your own govt may have connections with the U.S. Govt on what agency needs the help the most.  I know very little of Canada so I have no idea where you live in relation to say New York. But they may be getting  hurricane victims up there soon.

We are filling up down here in Texas. The church I go to has been hosting people since Wednesday. We're at 230 and thats all we can handle. The Jr High Gym, where my youngest son attends school is holding another 250 or so. The Gov of Texas said today that they were going to have to start air lifting victims to other states. So there may soon be some living close to the Canadian border.
You just want to be sure your gift gets used properly.

Bless you for what your doing these people are down hard and need all the help we can give them.:aok


WTG Shifty, and all the folk in Texas. The numbers are staggering, and Texas being next door will undoubtedly play a huge roll.

 I wish we could send the money piecemeal to groups as your local church. But I understand that the big organisations have a better pipeline for distribution, so we'll probably go big org. But it would be so much more rewarding to help the small org.s, since they do this year long, and thankfully mostly on a smaller scale.

About 100 Canadian Red Cross workers already there, we sendin our hospital ship and 4 navy ships, they'll get there this week. Also sending our fresh water dudes, we have these military units equipped with state of the art osmosis filtering machines that can plug right into existing water lines, supplyinh fresh potable water. I think we sending all of them, should be there early next week.

I wish we could do much, much more. I really do.


Andrew
« Last Edit: September 04, 2005, 11:19:59 PM by airbumba »
I used to be a fatalist,
but that part of me died.

Offline airbumba

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2005, 11:45:00 PM »
Wholly carp Shifty! U mighta just given me an idea.

If your church were to recieve a donation from the community tomorrow, my guess is that donation would be needed to help your church  in it's efforts in helping folks that came from the disaster area?

Your church would buy veggies and meat to make soups and stews, and buy cots and sheets for their bedding, right?

Well that's it dangit ! All i need is lists of all the smaller  community organisations that are taking in the needy, on the periphery(sp) and we donate to them. Great idea. These smaller org.s don't have the advertising or connections of the big ones, but they are all going to be dealing with individuals from the disaster zone.

Dang fine indeed. Just what I wanted. While all attention is pointed to the affected areas, the survivors are being repositioned miles away, in small towns and communities which must deal with the displaced and their needs. Yes money will filter down to these smaller org.s, but for now, they gotta make soup and buy linnen. And who better to get a bang for the buck, than the small community org.s, since they know the farmers, grociers and volunteers, nobody could do better in a community than the people of that community.

I'm gunna find out where , and in which communities the displaced will be headed and we'll divy up our cash to those small org.s.

If anyone knows of such org.s , please post their names here, thanks .

oh, by the way...the US Coast Guard rocks!!!
I used to be a fatalist,
but that part of me died.

Offline Gunslinger

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2005, 03:08:15 AM »
why don't you email shifty and find out what/where his church is and inclued it?

Offline Shifty

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2005, 07:45:36 AM »
Airbumba.

The church is Wesley United Methodist.
The church website is  http://www.wesleysst.org

Our pastor is Steve Davis. He would be the best person to contact about our efforts here.

His e-mail is SteveDavis@wesleysst.org

I'm certain any donations would be greatly appreciated and could certainly be used. There are still victims coming out of N.O. and the rest of the disaster area.   Our town  Sulphur Springs along with most of East Texas has responded well with help for the victims. Most of the communitys in this part of the state are fairly small  3k to 14K population is about average. So facilities are as critical,  as money. Like I said in the post above , I've heard victims will start being air lifted to other areas of the country as Texas shelters fill up. I'd hate for you to send it all to this small town , when it might be more useful elsewhere. You might want to spread it around I'm sure people are scrambling all over to help. I wish I had a better idea for you, but it's obvious this disaster is so bad it's going to take a nation wide effort to help. Vulcans idea about the Coast Guard is a good one too. You might consider contacting the Canadian Coast Guard for advice as well.

Thanks again Airbumba.:)

JG-11"Black Hearts"...nur die Stolzen, nur die Starken

"Haji may have blown my legs off but I'm still a stud"~ SPC Thomas Vandeventer Delta1/5 1st CAV

Offline DREDIOCK

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2005, 05:34:26 PM »
Myself personally. After the Fiasco with the charity organisations after 9/11 I'd much rather go out and buy a case of water or donate actual items then give cash.

Some you have to read the fine print. From what I understand even with the Red Cross only a small percentage of any donations is going to go to N.O. releif.

Sorry but If I want to donate to help the people suffering from the aftermath of Katrina. I want ALL my donation to go directly to that and not only a portion of it while the rest goes to help buy condoms for people in Zimbabwe
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Offline Captain Virgil Hilts

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2005, 05:51:47 PM »
Try contacting Swoosh , in the 327th squadron. He told me his church was going down in shifts for one week at a time. They are putting together packages as well.

I won't post his email address here, for obvious reasons. However, if you want to email me or PM me, I'll more than happy to forward it to him. What they are taking in is going back out 100%.
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Offline rpm

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2005, 06:42:55 PM »
As an ex-Coastie it does my heart good to see the comments here. I'm sure they would be the first to tell you thanks, but maybe another organization would be more in need of your donations.

I donated $100 to the Salvation Army. They are providing hot meals to the refugees and emergency responders. The Red Cross is another worthy charity. You can mark your donation for Katrina relief only.

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Offline Toad

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2005, 09:24:36 PM »
Just got back from a trip from Atlanta to Gulfport, MS.

Largest item we carried was water, 1200 1 Liter bottles.

I saw three, repeat three, Red Cross operations on the way to Gulfport. One was in Georgia, one was in Alabama and ...finally... we saw ONE in Mississippi.

From my perspective it's church groups that are doing the work on the front lines. Saw way more disaster relief stations giving out water, food, clothes and hot meals that were church affiliated than anything else.

That's who we delivered our load to down in Gulfport. They had a line of 2-300 folks passing through their tables picking up supplies and then they had a full kitchen providing hot meals after the people went through the line.

I'm biased though. My uncle came out from behind German lines and into Bastogne at the end of the Battle of the Bulge. He got in a long line for the Red Cross canteen and waited and waited. When it was his turn, he found out they wanted $5 for a cup of coffee. He had no money, they gave him no coffee. He went on to become a multi-millionaire after the war. He gave a lot of money to charity but he never, ever gave the Red Cross a dime.

Thanks for the donations, we all appreciate it.
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Offline swooosh

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2005, 12:09:08 AM »
Thanks for the mention SaVaGe.  Our church is indeed going to do some heavy lifting in the cleanup effort.  We are going down in one week shifts.  Our web site is http://www.umcshepherd.org/ .  All donations go directly to those in need in cash or goods as we cover our own expenses.  All help appreciated.  Pastor Carroll is heading up this effort.  We know a bit about this because we build houses in Mexico and also here with Habitat for Humanity.

Thanks – God Bless

Offline Ozark

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2005, 03:09:41 AM »
I worked in the Flood of 93 in Mid-Missouri. I know that Southern Boone County Missouri is small scale compared to the massive destruction in the Gulf-States. We took control and built miles of sandbag levies. I'll never forget when the bloated (administration) Red Cross arrived to do a study for relief supplies for Hartsburg, MO. Before the Red Cross finished their study and had committee meetings, the Salvation Army arrived with tents and loaded them with supplies. The next morning a Salvation Army mobile kitchen arrived from Indiana. I bet you can guess who I sent money to. I have seen the Salvation Army at work and they are the only relief organization I send money.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2005, 03:58:20 AM by Ozark »

Offline oboe

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2005, 07:19:00 AM »
This excerpt is from www.ConservativeTruth.org  :

Quote
If we have learned anything since 9/11 regarding charities, it is “Giver, beware!” Hundreds of new charities sprang up in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Many, if not most, were scams. Movie stars and musicians lent their names and support to fund-raising activities and events, only to find that the money raised did not go where the givers intended it to go.

Even the “Super Charities,” the United Way and the Red Cross had reason to hang their heads in shame. The Red Cross did a much better job of getting donated money to victims than did the United Way. The United Way withheld donations from victims of the disasters for months, finally yielding to public pressure. But both organizations raised money in the name of the disaster victims, and then diverted them to other purposes. And both organizations were exposed for paying huge executive salaries.

One charity has stayed above all this for 137 years. The Salvation Army is unique among all U.S. charities for many reasons. Let’s start at the top. Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary just $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 Billion dollar organization. By comparison, Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary (plus numerous expensive benefits) and the Red Cross President Marsha Evans receives $450,000 plus benefits.

Offline Seagoon

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where we put our relief cash
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2005, 02:01:07 PM »
Organizations I personally know of where the vast majority of aid goes directly to the victims and which I have confirmed are already distributing aid (obviously there are others, but these are the ones I can vouch for 100%):

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (100% goes to aid)
Smaritan's Purse
PCA Disaster Relief


Here's a small testimony from satirist Scott Ott, about how the SBC relief workers were the first on the ground distributing aid to Katrina victims:

Katrina Relief with Efficiency, Love and Hope
by Scott Ott

THIS IS NOT SATIRE...

She was legally blind. Life moved in shadows around her. She lived alone.

That night, she awoke startled by an odd sound. Her feet slipped from under the sheet and searched for the slippers, but found instead cold water, ankle deep. She stood and walked toward the door, as the shadows of furniture moved around her and unknown floating objects bumped her bare legs. Mid-way across the room, the water lapped at her hips. By the time she reached the door, she swam, finally finding her footing in the front yard.

As she told me her story the day after, I handed her a bottle of water that had been given to me by the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team that had established a command post at the Baptist church on the hill.

In the days that followed, a friend and I ran a volunteer courier service ferrying food, toiletries and cleaning supplies from the command post to the flood zone in the bed of his pickup truck.

The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team converted the church gymnasium into a distribution center and institutional food service. The whole operation seemed to rise like Brigadoon from the mist, full-formed and well-oiled, as if it had always been there.

Wearing brightly colored t-shirts and hats that helped newcomers identify leaders, these men and women worked day and night providing not only basic needs, but comfort, encouragement, love and hope to people who suddenly owned three-sided houses carpeted with mud.

Several days later, as I arrived at the command post to get more supplies, I found the woman from another well-known aide agency who had set up shop alongside the Southern Baptists in the gym.

She leaned against the bricks. Her hand struggled to bring the cigarette to her lips. The fingers of the other hand burrowed into her tangled hair. The pressure...the stress...too much. She marvelled at how the Baptist team could take it.

Inside the command post, the bright shirts and hats still moved to an inner music. The room looked more organized, the workers more energetic, than the day they had arrived.

Fast forward to Oklahoma City...just after a bomb ripped open the federal building like a box of Cracker Jacks. In a parking garage, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief had assembled pallets of food, water and other essentials for the teams of rescue workers who exhausted themselves digging toward a whisper.

I went to the chaplain training session. Dozens of pastors and other church leaders were being prepared for the extraordinary work of ministering to firefighters and rescue workers as they recovered and regrouped before re-entering the shock zone.

On the flight into Oklahoma City, I had sat next to a freelance videographer for NBC. So, I asked the trainer if a chaplain was assigned to the news media village of RVs, scaffolding platforms and satellite-uplink trucks near the Murrah Building. He allowed me to take another man and spend an hour finding out if the news teams needed ministry.

A young TV reporter from a Los Angeles station was on the cell phone with his producer. Tears flowed as he begged to be sent home. Staring into the yawning maw of that building, hour after hour, had brought him to the edge of sanity. I followed the chaplaincy trainer's guidance -- mostly listening, sharing some comfort and hope from the Bible, praying for him and with him.

Back at the parking garage command post, a dusty firefighter downed a bottle of water as brightly colored t-shirts moved efficiently around him and cared for his needs.

Before Hurricane Katrina had finished her dance of death on the Gulf coast... Southern Baptist Disaster Relief had assembled two "incident command teams", gathered supplies in staging areas and committed to provide at least 300,000 meals per day.

They'll cooperate with workers of other faiths, as well as secular and government agencies, to provide what's needed, when it's need ... all with an attitude of faith, hope and love.

You may contribute money to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief online, or by writing a check to "North American Mission Board" (memo: Katrina Relief) and mailing it to:
NAMB
P.O. Box 116543
Atlanta, GA 30368-6543
SEAGOON aka Pastor Andy Webb
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