I objected when my office selected the Red Cross as the recipient of our donations. (Fortunately, they found another outfit.)
I give blood to United Blood Services, but not the Red Cross.
However, in their defense, they had no way to know how much blood would be needed in the weeks immediately after 9/11. I think they did the right thing to collect as much as they could manage. Unlike the funds which were earmarked for NY and apparently rerouted by the Red Cross, I believe most of us were giving blood in case it was needed ANYWHERE. Fortunately for us all, it was not all needed.
You are right. We need to keep our focus and not get distracted by the misdeeds of the few. There will always be some who take advantage of circumstances. I think we can all be proud of the response of the general public in trying to help all the victims of 9/11.
You're right. All we knew during the first few days is there were 5000 victims. Had even half lived (and no one knew at the time) this would have been a HUGE drain on the blood supply.
No, they knew within hours that it wouldn't be needed. One of the saddest things I can remember hearing in the aftermath of September 11 was hearing about all the hospital emergency rooms that evening waiting for the flood of survivors, which never came in. Only five people were rescued alive after the second tower collapsed. The Red Cross KNEW they weren't going to need all this blood, and knew how many people were donating (people waited hours and hours in line), yet they kept up the appeals for blood for weeks.