Posted on 11/13/2001 1:05:27 PM PST by Is2C
WASHINGTON, November 6, 2001: The American Red Cross has spent or committed close to $154 million, in less than seven weeks, an unprecedented charitable effort. According to its Congressional testimony today, the Red Cross has helped 25,000 families and individuals who suffered losses in the September 11 tragedies.
In addition to direct assistance, the nation's oldest and most trusted humanitarian organization has provided more than 10 million meals and snacks (more than 100,000 per day) to families, police officers, fire fighters, recovery personnel, rescue workers and investigators. Red Cross mental health workers also have provided emotional support for more than 144,000 people affected by these horrific events at the disaster sites and across the country.
Put in perspective, the Red Cross has provided more funding to victims' families than all other major charities combined. Farley and Bender both reassured the subcommittee members that all donations to the Liberty Fund have been, and will continue to be used only to help those suffering from the tragedies and to prepare communities who are potential targets for future terrorist attacks.
The Red Cross also has:
Expeditiously provided financial cash assistance to 25,000 families.
The Red Cross has launched an aggressive outreach program to identify and assist families. To date, the organization has contacted more than 3,300 families who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks to determine their level of need. The Red Cross has also contacted families of foreign nationals who perished in the tragedies.
All contributions and disbursements are being audited by the accounting firm KPMG in addition to the in-house auditing team.
The Red Cross continues to provide respite centers for construction workers, police, fire personnel and emergency medical technicians at the site of the World Trade Center.
43,000 of the 46,000 trained disaster relief volunteers working on these events are volunteers.
The American Red Cross was chartered by Congress in 1905 to maintain a system of national and international relief and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. The organization responds to 67,000 disasters each year.
JustGive
United We Stand
September 11th Victims Relief Fund
New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund
Housing Relief Fund
Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
America: A Tribute to Heroes
NY Relief
NY Firefighters Fund
World Trade Center Miracles Foundation (WTCMF)
Todd M. Beamer Memorial Foundation
PA September 11 Victim Assistance Program
Canadians Care
New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund
Terrorist Attack Relief Fund
Metro Ministries Relief Fund
WTC Foundation Rebuilding Fund
Children's Relief Fund
Family Relief Fund
Check these out here. How many of these and the rest of the 160 "relief organizations" have internal much less external Big Six accounting firms auditing their activities? These are *all* organizations that say *all* of the donations go *only* to the 9/11 victims - a claim the Red Cross never made. Why isn't anyone hounding these organizations? I love Fox and O'Rielly but I think he is off base on this one. The Red Cross helps victims of all kinds of tragedies (many much larger than this, e.g. thousands left homeless and possesionless (is that a word?) by hurricanes, mud slides, earthquakes, etc.) all over the world.
It's not like we are hearing that they are spending these donations on cruises and private island vacations. I was on weather.com today and there were two stories on there about weather-related disasters. In one, 4000 families were left HOMELESS. The Red Cross was there offering assistance in both locations. I'm not trying to say that they are saints but I really think if you were going to rate these 9/11 "relief funds" on how they have expended their $$, the Red Cross would be very far to the "honorable" end and the others would be piled up around the "fraud" end. Just my 2 cents.
Here's a brief anecdote that soured me on them: A Lutheran pastor who was on the scene at Ground Zero following the 9-11 attack was preparing to take part in a program to comfort New Yorkers at the scene. He was told by a Red Cross leader that he could take part, but in no way could he mention the word "Jesus" in what he said at the function.
Send all the money you want to. I choose other charities that are more "diverse" than the Red Cross. Ironic that they choose to besmirch the root of the symbol of their organization.
Also in my local newspaper today a man who had been stationed in Europe in 1967 whose father died was given roundtrip air fare to attend his father's funeral. The army provided transportation back to the states. The Red Cross provided a ticket from New Jersey to Oregon.
However, the man had to pay the Red Cross back for the ticket. He went without pay for three months to reimburse them.
Doesn't sound to charitable to me.
I was talking to a friend I don't see alot anymore and he was telling me that a guy he knows called him and told him he had scammed $1,400 from the charities and asked him to join in. I advised strongly against it, as that is only for people who want to go to HELL.
Best guess, they are lying their asses off, trying to explain what they are doing with $500,000,000!!
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