re: Veterans vs. Red Cross doughnuts - longest running grudge ever?

After Katrina they established a "store" on the cruise ship that I lived on for 6 months. Everything on the store was free and was very much needed. They had clothes, toiletries, phone cards and many other items. It was very helpful and greatly appreciated.

When Gustav hit, we (family and friends) were running our local fire dept and they delivered meals which we handed handed out. That was helpful.

They also help families after fires. We call them and they set up a hotel room and a gift card to buy essentials

However, after another hurricane a tree fell on a woman's house. She was a widow with three kids. We called them and they said they would NOT get a hotel room for them and that they should go to a red cross shelter a HUNDRED miles away which was ridiculous. So they ended up sleeping at our house till they got things straight with the insurance company.

That really pissed us off that they did that. We no longer work with them or volunteer our time with them.

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My dad agrees with you. He is not a fan of the Red Cross.

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My dad was a Korea vet, and never had a good word to say about the Red Cross.

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If you are looking for an organization that puts the money in the right place try The Salvation Army.

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I had to help clean up 3 different homes in three different parts of the city after Katrina.

The Red Cross was getting all the money and I didn't see them ANYWHERE.

I saw the Salvation Army at every location. They set up a "permanent" station where you could go and get food and water. They also were driving in vans down the streets and giving out food and water.


Just a little background on American Red Cross and Katrina. Right after 9/11, the Red Cross advertised all over the television asking people to give to the 9/11 victims and to help the Red Cross give relief to the people of New York.

The Red Cross collected hundreds of millions of dollars USING the 9/11 catastrophe to do so. Well, they decided that they didn't want to spend all the money on the 9/11 victims and on New York. They wanted to spend it on themselves -- they own several million dollar "vacation homes" that only their executives get access to.

Well, some people in New York sued and in the end they were ordered to spend that money on 9/11 related charitable events.


So, when Katrina came along, they didn't "advertise" with the express statement that the money would go to Katrina relief. Instead, they just bombarded the airwaves with scenes of the devastation of New Orleans making people believe that their donations would go there. However, because they didn't say that the money was for Katrina relief (unlike their media blitz after 9/11), they took the position that they didn't have to spend all the money they collected after Katrina on Katrina relief. And they didn't.

F*CK THE RED CROSS.

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The Red Cross used to give me hot lunches almost every day after Katrina. They were basically a mix of all kinds of things. One of my favorites was rice, corn, peas, and ground meat all in one bowl mushed together.

Other than that, I haven't seen them do a single thing

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I was going to say, I remember them passing by my house and giving me a stack of lasagna meals.

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I was going to say, I remember them passing by my house and giving me a stack of lasagna meals.

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I got a few meals from both of them after Katrina while working before anything was open. Red Cross wasn't bad but I remember the Salvation Army was serving Spaghetti O's and they were the best damn Spaghetti O's I'd ever eaten. I asked them about it and they said they could buy them in volume for cheap and they stretched into more meals. You weren't sitting down at Commanders but they were getting hot food out.

Ate quite a few MRE's as well.

Change that to Camille and the gulf coast and it's exactly what my dad used to say about the Red Cross.

frick the Red Cross - International, particularly, but American too.

Right in the ear...