Okay - I'm ready to cancel the Red Cross period

The response to providing musical instruments to people has been wonderful, but we hit one snag. The Red Cross seems to be running this show totally, and they are the ones who decide what people want or need, and the woman who works with the Red Cross here decided all they need is food and a place to move to.

So, I contacted some other major charities, like the North American Mission Board. I was told that the Red Cross is blocking their efforts as well.

They want no volunteers and no help if it is not what they decide is appropriate.

So - I'm now on an Anti-Red-Cross warpath.

 

Webdog,

No offense, but:

1) I am not an untrained volunteer. In fact, frankly, I recently discovered I've had more training in this area that the person who told me no.
2) To someone who truly loves making music, an instrument is as important as an arm or a leg. It is life sustaining to a true musician.
3) Music is a tremendous stress reliever, and while some people prefer to run laps around a jogging track, for other people the only way to get that hurt and pain out is to pick up their instrument and play it.

 

DonnaA,

The Salvation Army came through, and in fact thanked me. Seems they already had some children complaining that they needed their instruments replaced.

We are going to collect the instruments and give them to Salvation Army who in turn will get them to whoever wants them. If we have them left over, we'll hand them out to local schools.

For the record. I did contact the NAMB. They wanted to help too, but the Red Cross told them to take a leap too.

 

P.S. - Don't you just love the assumptions of people that if you are not registered with their agency you don't know anything about how to handle the problem?

Oddly enough, I got my disaster training from the Red Cross.

[ September 07, 2005, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: TexasSky ]

 

Johnv,

I'm not asking them to be a cure all.

I am asking them to stop preventing other charities from doing what THEY do best. In our city they seem to have created some kind of prison for the survivors.

The survivors can't get in or out without passes. People can't get in or out without passes. Donations are not welcome. They came on tv and chewed out a person for taking a survivor family home with them. They turned away the North American Mission Board, and they tried to turn away the Salvation Army. The attitude is very much, "These are our people."

The Red Cross did an amazing job of getting them food, shelter and blood. That's wonderful.

However, they are literally forbidding people to do more than that, and the people they are forbidding include professional charitable organizations.

 

Dh,

Praise God.

Understand folks, I'm not mad at the whole National Red Cross. I'm mad at the local folks who are displaying an absolutely territorial behavior toward them.

Today when I was ranting about it at home, a woman said, "I know just what you mean. I have been working there, and I have to smuggle suitcases into the area because the Red Cross says that suitcases are not essential. They want people to carry their things in trash bags."

 

We aren't in the area, Thankful. We're a good 14 hour drive from the area, and I understand a need for protection in the sense of checking identification.

As to "getting in and out" though - understand. This is the main hanger and runway region of a US Air Base. These people leaving the shelter are not leaving the whole base. The people getting onto base are already screened.

Basically, if you are in that shelter and you want to step out for fresh air, or to take a walk past 9:00, tough. You aren't allowed. If you are INSIDE and you want to talk to someone, you're asked not to because it is past time.

Basically, these adults are being given a curfew with a 9:00 bedtime.

 

Kubel,

The only way for any group to get the aid to the victims in our city was to go through the Red Cross. The churches couldn't get past them either.

HOWEVER - today - I heard from another source that the executive director of the Red Cross did not know that people were doing that, and he has told them to stop turning other people away.

 

Thankful,

The Red Cross story has really had a rather interesting ending. The Executive Director contacted me. It seems that the person who was refusing assistance from other agencies in town did not have the authority to do so, and that they were doing exactly the opposite of what the Red Cross wanted done.

The Red Cross preferred to coordinate efforts of everyone, and encourage everyone to do what they do best. They were surprised, and upset, to find out someone was telling people they were not wanted or needed.

Now they are working with the churches and missions in the area.