With the death toll and the relief efforts continuing to increase following the natural disaster in Indonesia, local residents might wonder how they can assist.
Carol Mutzner with the Tuolumne County Chapter of the American Red Cross has a couple of suggestions, if you´d like to donate. “We are recommending a cash donation because we just don´t have the facilities or the staff or space to handle in-kind donations,” Mutzner said.
And how have donations been so far? Mutzner said they´ve been surprisingly good.
“How incredibly generous this community has been. It´s always very surprising and very heartwarming to see the response that we do get. It´s a very wonderful thing.”
With every natural disaster, comes those who try to take advantage of the situation for themselves. Mutzner said the Red Cross staff even discussed such topics during a recent staff meeting.
“We have not authorized anybody to go door-to-door. What we would recommend is either stopping by our office, which is at 13669 Mono Way [in Sonora], and dropping their checks off there, or else mailing them to the American Red Cross.”
The number to the local office of the American Red Cross is 533-1513 or you can mail in a donation.
The address is
American Red Cross
PO Box 81
Sonora CA 95370
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 2:25 pm