Manassas Journal Messenger | City Focus for Sept. 13
• Many Manassas and Manassas Park residents have helped establish an unprecedented national pace of donations following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Americans have contributed about $762 million in the last two weeks, according to the Chronicle for Philanthropy.
While the good news and dollars keep coming forth, so do the ne’er-do-wells. Manassas and Manassas Park city officials are warning donors to be mindful of scam artists, who are so plentiful these days that a Hurricane Katrina Task Force has been established by the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and other federal government entities.
Two Manassas men and one Manassas Park woman were among four people arrested and charged with fraudulently soliciting in a Reston neighborhood last week.
The following charities are charities recognized by the National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster, whose Web site lists a bevy of nonprofit groups that are offering aid. Visit www.nvoad.org or call (703) 339-5596. You can also contact the following nonprofit groups directly: American Red Cross at www.redcross.org or (800-435-7669); American’s Second Harvest at www.secondharvest.org or (800) 771-2303; or United Way of America at www.national.unitedway.org or (800) 272-4630.
• One man’s (or woman’s) trash is another man’s (or woman’s) treasure … at least that’s how the saying goes. If you’re in the market to dispose of or obtain such items, stop by the community yard sale at Park Place Senior Apartments on Saturday. The Department of Parks and Recreation is sponsoring the event from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 9659 Manassas Drive.
• And finally, I hope the cities’ approximately 9,000 public school students had a great first week. I’m no longer the education reporter, but the smell of cafeteria lunches and the feeling of being bombarded by short people begging to be interviewed remain dear to my heart.
To contribute information for this column, please contact staff writer Tory N. Parrish at (703) 368-6570 or [email protected].