As published in the Barrie Advance, February 9, 2011
BARRIE I can certainly sympathize with Maria Bentley (Where did the money go?, Jan. 25) as I have been involved in volunteering and giving to charities over the past 15 years.
What I found, not to mention any of these charities, was that only a portion of the monies I donated went to the specific cause the particular charities were supporting.
I looked into this and found a person can receive from the federal government a list of those charities with their cost of operations.
I was amazed in most cases how little went to the people or countries they were supporting, and also that these organizations were receiving grants from our government – this being taxpayers’ money.
A good friend of mine told me about a charity, Sleeping Children Around the World, started by Murray Dryden in 1970 to provide bed kits for children in 34 countries. Mr. Dryden and his wife were in Calcutta, and were going out to dinner one evening when Mr. Dryden tripped over something in the street. It was a small child sleeping. He was so taken aback that he talked to his local Rotary Club, which put him in touch with Rotary International. Since then more than one million bed kits have been distributed.
I became a volunteer and over the past seven years, I know that 100 per cent of the monies went directly to those needy children. You can find out more at www.scaw.org.
Donald Potter
Barrie
