Haiti

Today I volunteered at the Red Cross Bay Area (redcrossbayarea.org) to answer phones and accept donations to help in the Haiti Relief Fund. I was glad to get a number of calls from people wanting to verify that the texting program to donate $10.00 was legitimate. It is. For those of you who might want to donate $10.00, here are the details:

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

During our four hour shift our team of five people accepted and processed over $4000.00 in donations. The amounts varied between $10.00 to $1000.00. We also answered questions, gave suggestions and yes, verified that the Red Cross is behind the above texting program. Keep in mind the American Red Cross does not accept food, clothing, water, or medicine, as they purchase those immediate items they need. The International Red Cross has people on site in Haiti.

If you are interested in learning about ways to donate time and tangible goods other, I recommend http://www.interaction.org/ to learn about the more than 160 humanitarian organizations represented at the website.

Since I am a regular volunteer for the Red Cross Bay Area team, I will be back manning the phones next week.