Quilts For Japan...Update

If you have quilts to send to donate to the people in Japan, the deadline for mailing to Quilters Newsletter is today as they want all quilts in their office on April 30th.

If you have one in progress and can't meet that deadline, do not feel badly, you can send them to:
QFJ
c/o Larry Musick CEO (After May 19th Larry will be traveling to Japan so please send c/o Sharon Wallis)
Global Samaritan Resources
2074 North 1st Street
Abilene, Texas
79603

If you are sending to QFJ, their deadline to have all quilts is May 24th.

So, I sent 3 smaller quilts out to Quilters Newsletter and will send my large one that I am finishing up today to QFJ and then begin making quilts for people hit hard by the tornadoes.

I have had people send me Emails and ask why I don't just donate to the Red Cross or United Way. Simply put, I have seen to much and heard to much abuse in both of these organizations and while they do amazing work without a doubt in the areas of sheltering, blood donations, etc. I am NOT contributing to their salaries.

Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross...for her salary for the year ending in 2009 was $651,957 plus expenses. Enjoys 6 weeks - fully paid holidays including all related expenses during the holiday trip for her and her husband and kids. including 100% fully paid health & dental plan for her and her family, for life. This means out of every dollar they bring in, about $0.39 goes to related charity causes.

The third worst offender was again for the 7th time was, Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary (U.S. funds), plus so many numerous expense benefits it's hard to keep track as to what it is all worth, including a fully paid lifetime membership for 2 golf courses (1 in Canada, and 1 in the U.S.A.), 2 luxury vehicles, a yacht club membership, 3 major company gold credit cards for his personal expenses...and so on. This equates to about $0.51 per dollar of income goes to charity causes.

So, I quilt and I send my quilts to organizations that I know will deliver them to someone in need. In the United States, I will contact 911 Cares and they always have a police or fire agency that is passing out things for people in need in disaster areas.

So, If you didn't wake up to standing on top of what was left of your home as the skies opened up to blue and sunshine, or to your neighborhood being totally obliterated off the map, be thankful and instead of spending that $4 on Starbucks, $8 on lunch or $20 on that new purse, toss together a shoe box package and send it to a local police/fire agency, a family member in the area of simply contact Kevin at 911cares.com and tell him the quilting dispatcher sent you to ask how you can help.

Believe me, even $4 helps when you have nothing left in life that you recognize.