... and bringing his big ole load of disaster relief donations with him.
There will be a campaign rally in Doswell, north of Richmond beginning at 1:45 PM.
The bottom of the invitation included information on donating to Red Cross efforts, and encouraged supporters to bring bottled water and supplies to collection centers at Romney campaign offices for distribution.
Although his campaign has been informed the Red Cross doesn't accept goods he continues to ask for them. Grandstanding much?
As Stacy Palmer, the editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, explained to NPR last year after Japan’s tsunami, ”Lots of people coming in with lots of donated goods often, instead of helping, gets in the way of really efficient disaster recovery.”
FEMA agrees. “Remember, unsolicited donated goods such as used clothing, miscellaneous household items, and mixed or perishable foodstuffs require helping agencies to redirect valuable resources away from providing services to sort, package, transport, warehouse, and distribute items that may not meet the needs of disaster survivors,” the agency explains in its Tips for Donating and Volunteering Responsibly.
People want to help and shouldn't be blatantly misled by Romney who is using this disaster as a stage prop. One more little tidbit...
the effort to cloak a political rally in a relief effort that will probably provide little actual relief seems disingenuous. Indeed, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that the Red Cross told her they were “grateful for Romney donation but prefer people send money or donate blood don’t collect goods NOT best way to help.”
Watch out VA, he's heading your way with relief supplies, and gonna snarl things up in the process. Christie should have let him do the helicopter tour/photo op and then he'd be out of everyone's hair.