Donating to Red Cross will directly help Joplin survivors!

My family lost our home and all our belongings, etc, along with 400 other families in our town due to a forest fire (Cerro Grande Fire of 2000). We weren't allowed in our area for 10 days. For help from FEMA, we had to wait hours in line, different lines for different needs so it was several hours over a few days, filling out forms, waiting to get approval, and that was only begun AFTER the 10 day evacuation. It was awful. Fortunately, the Red Cross and it's volunteers, showed up at the shelters and fed our families, brought donated clothes (as we left with limited clothes as the fireman evacuated us from our homes). Once we were allowed back in our town, the Red Cross handed out face masks and supplies so we could safely pick thru the charred remains of our homes, and cleaning suppplies if you were one of the lucky ones to still have a home standing. They also provided free meals at a 'mobile truck' in town. They even helped with groceries and getting my out-of-town prescription filled since my family had justed moved there a month before the fire. I could never thank the Red Cross enough! It's all I can do not to cry now, remembering how they immediately met all our basic needs to survive in the aftermath without having to wait for 'proof of need' or 'approval' from some distant office personell! They are AMAZING!!!