Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9307110212
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KADY McMASTER and JOHN C. PATTERSON THE KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In only a year and a half, their effort has expanded into a full-fledged relief organization with branches in almost half a dozen cities, seven major missions to six countries and up to 500 volunteers.
The growth of Heart to Heart is mirrored by a surge of similar efforts taking hold across the country.
Prompted by the images of worldwide strife brought daily into their living rooms through 24-hour news networks, housewives and retirees are busy organizing aid missions from their garages and dining room tables.
"This grass-roots thing has taken hold," said Heather Bomberger, special assistant to Ambassador Thomas Simons, who coordinates U.S. assistance for the former Soviet Union. "People across the country are seeing a need and doing something."
Rejecting traditional donations to church groups and aid agencies, they are tenacious in seeking tangible results.
"I was told it couldn't be done," said Amy Curtis of Madisonville, Ky., who started Family to Family, a relief group for Russia, from her home last year. "I called the White House, my congressman, TV stations. They said, `Send a check to the Red Cross, you'll feel better.' They were all telling me no, and I kept saying, `Oh, yes."'
Curtis is not alone.
Consider:
A special-education teacher in Deep Gap, N.C., sold her car to pay for a trip to Moscow, founded a group called "Russians Love Their Children, Too," and sent three 20-foot-long containers of aid to Russia in the past year.
Fourteen Croatian organizations in the Kansas City area have formed the Croatian Council of Kansas City and have sent a dozen containers of medical supplies to Bosnia and Croatia. In May, Heart to Heart helped the council coordinate an airlift.
A 50-year-old mother of five in Novato, Calif., who as a schoolgirl was taught to fear Russians, last year started International Humanitarian Services out of her home. In just six weeks, she collected 60 tons of medical supplies and food for an airlift to Russia.
At the urging of the governor's wife, a pharmacist in Jackson, Miss., organized Mississippians Reaching Out to send relief to St. Petersburg, Russia.
In Albuquerque, N.M., two humanitarian aid efforts have spun off of one man's letter to the editor in a local newspaper urging readers to "do something" to help the needy people of the former Soviet Union.
Heart to Heart appears to be the most ambitious of the new organizations. Since its inception, the group has sent almost $20 million in food and medicine to Albania, Russia, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria and several domestic trouble spots.
The group has grown so much that Morsch quit his medical practice last month to run the group full time. He now works weekend and evening shifts in an emergency room to support his family.
"If you'd have told me a few years ago all this would happen, I wouldn't believe you," said Jim Bayer of the Fund for Democracy and Development, which contracts with the U.S. State Department to handle the shipping for relief efforts. "It's typical of the American people. They have big hearts."
More established aid agencies have noted the recent increase in such grass-roots efforts, but say the private groups haven't taken away from them.
"Those groups are good, but in terms of actually working on the problem, they really don't address the root causes," said Hope Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for CARE in New York.
"The help that's needed can't just come in a small box of food," Rosenberg said. "We work more on the long-term needs."
Bayer, Rosenberg and David Giroux, spokesman for the American Red Cross in Washington, attribute the recent increase in grass-roots efforts to increased information flow.
"Only a few years ago, you would have maybe read a wire story, you wouldn't have seen the moving pictures," Giroux said. "Now, with CNN you can actually see Somalia."
Curtis was touched by television news reports of Russian women standing in line at empty grocery stores.
"I was just a mom with a real burning desire to help another mom," Curtis said.
She intended to help just one family. Instead, her group, Family to Family, has sent eight containers of aid to Russia and is opening a thrift shop this summer. Curtis receives an average of 10 letters a day from needy Russians who have learned of her efforts.
Some of the organizers say they decided to start their own groups simply because they were tired of handing over money to charities without knowing exactly what it was going for.
"I wanted to send something to a family in Russia, but you hear about the black market, and I wanted to make sure it got to the family," said Susan Coleman, the North Carolinian who founded Russians Love Their Children, Too.
A downside to the proliferation of these small organizations across the country is a lack of networking. The groups don't really communicate, and many end up duplicating efforts and trying to "reinvent the wheel," according to a member of Mississippians Reaching Out.
Unlike Heart to Heart, most of the grass-roots organizations send aid only to the former Soviet Union. Airlifts to nations in conflict, like Somalia and Bosnia, have proved a tremendous logistical challenge.
Heart to Heart also began small when four members of the Olathe Rotary Club got together in late 1991 to talk about sending aid overseas after seeing news accounts about Chernobyl victims.
That drive collected 90 tons of medical supplies for an airlift to Russia, which Heart to Heart founders thought would end their effort, said Barbara Moore, senior project manager for Heart to Heart. But it was so successful, the State Department offered to provide another plane if Heart to Heart would continue.
The State Department suggested another airlift to the newly free Soviet states, and plans began for sending medical aid to St. Petersburg, Russia. But during preparations, the southern U.S. coastline was hit by Hurricane Andrew. Already mobilized, Heart to Heart organized a domestic relief mission within 48 hours.
One of the things Heart to Heart has going for it is heavy-hitting support. The group's advisory board includes U.S. Sens. Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and John Danforth of Missouri; Kansas state Sen. Bud Burke; Kansas Gov. Joan Finney; U.S. Rep. Alan Wheat of Missouri and Marion Merrell Dow President John Deadwyler. U.S. Rep. Jan Meyers of Kansas, who helped Heart to Heart arrange government transportation, is the group's honorary chairwoman.
At times this assistance has been crucial. The group was organizing its St. Petersburg airlift early this year when it got word that a plane would not be available because of federal budget cuts. Dole, Kassebaum and Meyers restored funding, enabling the project to continue, Moore said.
Still, those at Heart to Heart are determined to keep their organization at the grass-roots level. Although that approach is not the easiest, Heart to Heart marketing coordinator Beth Rose said, it is another major reason for success.
The group has set up bins in hardware stores to collect gardening tools to go to Somalia.
But rather than constantly relying on donations and fund-raisers, Heart to Heart officials are seeking commitments from corporate leaders. Through corporate development, the group would get money to launch new missions and set up long-term projects.
But a lot of the group's immediate needs are internal, Rose said. The staff is overloaded and needs to be expanded, she said. More positions are in the planning, including a development person to work full time on securing corporate donors and funding.
Heart to Heart also hopes to add a regional coordinator who would assist offices sprouting up around the country in places like New York and Arizona. Heart to Heart hopes to add more offices and ultimately expand to work on an international network.
"We want to give people the opportunity for this firsthand experience anywhere across the country," Rose said.
by CNB