Last edited Fri Jun 27, 2014, 04:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Cross. Charging for coffee/doughnuts, etc. That was all I had to hear,even as a young kid, to never, ever give them a dime. Got in trouble in school one time when I refused to do some crapola for the RC that was being conducted through the school...

the Red Cross charging for coffee and doughnuts. The choice words weren't very nice.

happen to have any change on them? They had just been part of one of the most casualty ridden offensives ever - yet they are expected to have nickels on their persons to obtain coffee or donuts?

Plus any part of the USA that gets hit with a disaster - the red Cross is first on the TV screen scene begging for money for the victims of Catastrophe Whatever. Most of the loot gets pocketed by themselves (Though I suspect some gets schlepped over to execs at the TV stations to keep putting on the "public service announcements."

The actual victims of the storm or fire or earthquake see scant offering of help. Victims of a Southern Calif. firestorm saw tents go up for those made homeless, but that was about it. The fire had allowed the RC to raise tens of millions of dollars, and then the public gets a few tents? The people in the field that the RC supervises are often unpaid volunteers, so that should give a person pause as well.

I looked into this before I started volunteering with the RC (which I don't do now just because of the insane paperwork requirements). Turns out there is a little more behind the "charging" thing.



http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/07/13/156737801/the-cost-of-free-doughnuts-70-years-of-regret

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Go to any VFW hall, even today, and you'll get the same story: During World War II, the Red Cross had comfort stations for soldiers overseas, with free coffee and free doughnuts. Then, in 1942, the Red Cross started charging for the doughnuts. Soldiers have held a grudge ever since.

Turns out it's true.

"It keeps coming up, that they were charged for coffee and doughnuts," says Susan Watson, archivist for the Red Cross.

The organization started charging only because the U.S. Secretary of War asked it to. British soldiers had to pay for their snacks, and the free doughnuts for Americans were causing tensions. So the Red Cross complied, after protesting to no avail. It didn't last long — for most of the last 70 years, Red Cross doughnuts have remained free — but veterans haven't forgotten.

Holding on to the money and collecting interest

He had absolutely no use for the former. They weren't even corrupt back then, they just got tied up in red tape with the European version.

Aunt Sally didn't ask who the gays were, they just helped everybody.

The local Red Cross outfits are still OK. The national Red Cross is corrupt beyond belief. When Dole was the head, they were selling blood they knew had a chance of being full of HIV to Canada.

Now they're a fundraising organization who have forgotten how to disburse those funds.

They're also way down on my list of people to give to.

My message to kind-hearted people everywhere:

Research a disaster-relief charity ahead of time so that you know you can trust them when the disaster hits.

Even if a disaster has already hit, take some time to check on a charity before giving.
It's better to delay your gift for a few hours, to know that it will actually get to the people who need it.

"My WWII vet uncle said that the troops in WWII despised the Red Cross who he said was selling coffee and donuts at the rest stations and when they assisted a soldier in going home for whatever reason, the soldier would have to sign a mortgage lien for the funds being given to him. He praised the Salvation Army (yes, I know it has strong religious roots and they beat the Christian drum loudly) for their work."

my uncles said the same exact thing.

It was such that no one in our house gave blood to the red cross (but to other organizations) and only donated to the Salvation Army since the war.