School, police drives on hold
By:Sally Goldenberg
The Red Cross chapter of Greater Somerset County announced Tuesday it cannot except any new donations for American troops in Iraq, after the Department of Defense placed a moratorium on donations from charitable groups.
Hours prior to the announcement, which was prompted by security restrictions, according to local Red Cross officials, a Red Cross volunteer addressed the Roosevelt Elementary School to encourage students to donate nonperishable food and toiletries for the troops.
"The kids were very disappointed," said Maureen Brown, a teacher at Roosevelt who organized the Red Cross assembly.
Mary Lou Casavant, the chapter’s executive director, said organizations within the United States have collected four months worth of items for care packages and are inundated with donations, which may have compounded with security concerns to persuade the department to halt the donations.
"We’ve been doing this for quite a while. We’ve been sending packages to Afghanistan, Kuwait, etc. Periodically for reasons that we don’t have control over and our national organization doesn’t have control over, the Department of Defense will put restrictions on things," she said.
Red Cross volunteer Karen VanRavenswaay addressed Roosevelt students earlier on Tuesday about the history of the Red Cross, the battle conditions in Iraq and the importance of donating food, cosmetics and paperback books to U.S. troops.
"These guys and these women are real heroes for what they’re doing. They’re fighting for what our country believes in," Ms. VanRavenswaay told the students.
Whether or not they support the war, Americans should support U.S. troops, she said to the students.
"It’s the soldiers that we still pray for," she said.
Ms. Brown said students in Manville were anxious to donate items to the Red Cross collection boxes that were to be set up throughout the school because during Hurricane Floyd three years ago, many of them relied on similar charitable efforts.
The hurricane, which ruined much of the borough and displaced numerous families, brought out a sense of civic-mindedness in many students, she said.
"They’ve been through a lot with Floyd and the devastation that’s gone on in their town," she said.
"It certainly meant something to them that they were flooded out," Ms. VanRavenswaay added.
Ms. Casavant said the Red Cross will ship out donations it received up until the announcement from the Defense Department. She encouraged residents seeking to donate to volunteer for another charitable cause.
"What happens unfortunately when there’s a focus, it seems like all of the energy is directed into that one focus and other worthwhile organizations somehow get overshadowed," she said.
The Manville chapter of the Police Benevolent Association, which has already donated one pickup truck worth of items to the county Red Cross, will store the additional items people have brought to the police station on North Main Street until the moratorium is lifted, Lt. Mark Sniscak said.
Officer John Granahan, state delegate in the Manville PBA, said he recalls his days spent overseas as a Marine.
Though he did not fight in combat, he said he understands the plights of being stationed overseas and wanted to aid American troops through the collection.