It sounds good, but....
....there are differences of opinion out there as to the validity of the sponsoring organisation. This is in the Toronto Sun today and is worth a read:
Quote:
Split over rally for war dead
Many with ties to military don't endorse Red Flags Foundations event
By MARK BONOKOSKI
The two Petawawa women who conceived the idea of wearing red on Fridays to support our Canadian troops have divorced themselves from a massive rally this weekend that mirrors the actual repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Neither Lisa Miller, a military wife, nor her friend, Karen Boire, wants anything to do with the rally's organizer, the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada, a private operation that took its name from the women's grassroots movement.
"We started Red Fridays as a small thing back in March 2006," Miller says. "We held a rally in Ottawa. There was another in Toronto and then, seven months later, there was this Red Friday's website that had nothing to do with us.
"It even had our names on the donations page. We were appalled and wanted nothing to do with it," she says. "Veterans were contributing to it thinking we were behind it.
"But, trust me, we weren't -- and we aren't."
'OBVIOUSLY HESITANT'
In fact, since its launch in late 2006, the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada has admittedly donated no more than $1,000 to Canadian Forces charities.
"It took the military nine weeks to cash that ($1,000) cheque. It's obviously hesitant to get involved," said the foundation's founder, York University IT consultant Brian Muntz. "So we are looking elsewhere for ways to help our veterans."
Muntz insists, however, that all is on the up and up and that he will soon post complete financials of his operation.
"I know there have been allegations out there that I am nothing but a scammer," he admits. "People are entitled to their own opinion.
"But do you think I am go -ing to go out there and pull a scam when I have three police departments involved (in the rally), and I've got 15 family members of the fallen involved?
"Well, I'd be a lunatic to do that, wouldn't I?"
Now just beginning to attract national media attention, the massive rally scheduled this Saturday from Trenton to Toronto -- along the hallowed Highway of Heroes stretch of the 401 -- will be led by a convoy of 83 red cars representing each Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2001, and with the lead car emblazoned with the names of all the fallen.
Muntz and his organizers are hoping to have upward of 1,000 vehicles in the cortege.
"Limited spaces left. Register now for the Repatriation Memorial Drive and Rally," reads the outfit's website, boasting that the rally will be "escorted down the highway by the OPP Golden Helmet Motorcade, other OPP vehicles, as well as Durham Police and Toronto Police vehicles."
"The procession will look extraordinary as they (sic) pass your overpass," the literature reads. "Remember to bring a Canadian flag to wave proudly as these drivers retrace the trip a fallen soldier takes to honour their sacrifices and to pay tribute to all service men and women and their families."
It will be a "fun-filled day for the entire family," the promotional material reads.
There is also a form on the website for rally participants to gather pledges, with a note to make cheques and corporate gifts payable to the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada.
The sophisticated website also flogs a veritable catalogue's worth of "Support Our Troops" decals, car magnets, lapel pins, T-shirts and ball caps, and sports a "Donate Now" icon for easy online credit card payment.
NEW LETTER
There is a reworked, read-and-weep letter, supposedly from the daughter of a Canadian soldier, that was outed long ago by Snopes.com as likely being fiction.
While what it is doing is not illegal, the ethics of this "foundation" are nonetheless being questioned.
Cases in point that raise concern:
* The organization's flagship vehicle, a red Dodge Magnum wagon donated by a Scarborough Chrysler dealership, is decked out with the names of the 83 Canadian soldiers, and one diplomat, killed so far in Afghanistan, leading its critics -- many in the military -- to denounce it as exploitive and in bad taste.
One of the names on that list is that of Cpl. Glen Arnold, a 32-year-old military medic from Petawawa who was killed by a suicide bomber on Sept. 18, 2006, in an attack that also took the lives of Cpl. Shane Keating, Cpl. Keith Morley and Pte. David Byers of the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo.
Arnold's widow, Kerry, a mother of three, wants no part of the upcoming rally, and no part of her husband's name on that car.
"I want it off," she says from Petawawa. "No one called me to ask my permission. In fact, no one has ever spoken to me about it whatsoever. I think it is wrong."
And so, too, does a military chaplain.
"I do not want to see a tra velling billboard claiming it is honouring the fallen. What it does is cheapen them," says Capt. Phil Ralph, padre of the 32nd Combat Engineers Regiment, and a minister who has already knocked on three doors to tell families their loved one is not coming home.
"I'm uncomfortable with it all. First, it is not a registered charity ... and that leaves me uneasy because there are a number of good options for true charities supporting our troops," he says.
"The Canadian public really cares about our troops, and this only confuses them. Mixed messages usually do."
* A wounded Canadian hero, Cpl. Mike McTeague, his leg blown off in Afghanistan by the same suicide bomber who killed Kerry Arnold's husband, has repeatedly asked that his picture be removed from the website since he does not endorse it.
Instead he'd rather money be donated to a legitimate charity, including one registered in his name -- The Sapper Mike McTeague Wounded Warriors Fund (wounded warriors.ca) -- which helps support Canadian soldiers and veterans who have suffered battle injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder from service in Afghanistan.
"I feel used," says the 22-year-old McTeague, son of an OPP constable based out of Orillia. "I sent an e-mail to (Muntz) almost three weeks ago asking him to take my picture, and any reference to me, off his website.
"He e-mailed me back and said he would take it down, but, far as I know, it is still there."
McTeague is right. It has yet to be removed.
* The department of national defence (DND), while supporting community-based Red Friday campaigns, such as the one first started by Miller and Boire, has made it clear in correspondence that those campaigns are "not to be confused with the Red Friday Foundation, which is not a charity, and is not affiliated with DND or the Canadian Forces (CF)," writes DND spokesman Andrew Mc- Kelvey.
"Canadians who wish to show support can purchase 'Support Our Troops' merchandise made available through the Canadian Forces Personnel and Family Support Agency (CFPSA)," he says.
Muntz's website -- red fridays.ca -- does publish a disclaimer that the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada is not a registered charity, although the word "foundation" can give the subliminal impression that it is.
"Please note that (the foundation) is not a charity and cannot give tax receipts," the disclaimer reads. "We are a public awareness group."
There is then a link to the donations page.
According to Muntz, cash drives at various trade shows have netted "only a few hundred dollars" after the expense of renting booths.
This weekend's rally, he said, has already raised $11,000, money that will now just cover the costs of such expenses as lighting and stage presentations.
Brian Wilkins, a Durham truck driver, who recently spent six months in Afghanistan on a civilian contract, and who is the designated spokesman for the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada, said the rally is hoping to net $12,000 once all costs are paid -- not for the foundation -- but for the Canadian Hearing Society, which supplies special equipment to hearing-damaged veterans.
The car bearing the names of dead Canadian soldiers and the one diplomat will reportedly be auctioned off later this year, with proceeds earmarked for the Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care in Scarborough.
'I DON'T KNOW WHY'
"Charities, by law, are not allowed to give money to charities," Wilkins says. "But registering as a charity is something we are looking into."
"The military is not behind us 100%," he admits. "And I don't know why.
"As for Brian Muntz, I've seen the man cry when people have questioned his honesty. You can't fake that. The man would be a fool to try to pull off something (untoward) with this high a national profile.
"I checked him out myself before getting involved (in the foundation), and I stand behind him 100%," Wilkins says. "It would blow me away if I found out he had scammed so much as a single dollar.
"He got involved because his parents were liberated by Canadian troops in Holland, and he wants to give back.
"I'm sure there is no bull shit going on."
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SUNRAY SENDS AND ENDS
:remember :support
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27-05-08, 15:27
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