NJSOCF OK, but Not Planet Aid

After all the trouble I went to in trying to establish if the clothing collection for the New Jersey State Organization of Cystic Fibrosis today that I spoke of yesterday was legit, and then sorting thru two closets and a backup bureau for less frequently worn clothes in order to gather clothing enuf for both bags left at my house last week, and getting those bags outside my front door before 9am this morning as instructed, they weren't picked up! I wondered at first if it was because my porch is up 16 steps, but then I saw an instruction I hadn't noted, that all bags must be marked "CF" to be picked up. Marked with what? Magic marker? How large must the marking be? Why don't they just mark all the bags they distribute? They go to the trouble of giving out distinctive white bags with red cinch bands but don't mark them "CF"? That makes no sense. Ah well, I'll find someplace to drop these clothes. (By the way, the name of NJSOCF is odd. "Of"? "For" might be a little iffy (it's really against CF). But New Jersey ["State" is superfluous; everybody knows NJ is a state] Cystic Fibrosis Services (as against research) Organization might be better, or NJS Organization on Cystic Fibrosis. Something other than "of".
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Meanwhile, I want to repeat my caution from February 15th, 2008, to think twice about dropping donations into the yellow bins put out by an organization called Planet Aid. One such bin recently appeared in the New Community Corporation's Bergen Street Pathmark shopping center (as below, fotograffed at nite).

The lines between parking spaces are brite in this picture because they were very recently repainted. And the stretch of South Orange Avenue in the adjoining block, which had become seriously cratered in the three years or so since SOA was repaved, has been beautifully repaved again, a great relief as against the roadside-bomb-blasted surface that had developed in prior months.

I did online research about Planet Aid again today and find that it is still part of a highly controversial and possibly criminal international organization called Tvind. Wikipedia's article on Tvind (which the search box at Wikipedia produced when I typed in "Planet Aid") gives the reader mixed messages about whether Tvind is or is not a cult or criminal entity. I also found out that a controversial anti-cult activist, Rick Ross, has set up an anti-cult foundation in NJ (Trenton). That Foundation has a lot of items about Tvind, only a couple of which I have checked out but which, in combination with other things I have found on the Internet, from other sources, suggest that a wise person would be well advised to keep their distance from Tvind and all its projects, including Planet Aid. The next foto shows Planet Aid's web address for anyone who'd like to see their side of the story.

Another entity, U'SAgain (pronounced like "Use Again": yuez agén), has placed red bins in parking lots in our area. It is apparenlty also part of Tvind, tho the company's female president claims on videotape that proceeds from U'SAgain do not go to the "Teachers Group", part of Tvind, even tho she and her husband are members of that Group. See a video investigation by KSTP of Minneapolis (search for "KSTP"). That report includes a brief interview with Rick Ross, who says that U'SAgain IS a Tvind operation. Perhaps the woman was telling a narrow truth but wider falsehood in saying that U'SAgain does not fund the "Teachers Group" — but proceeds from U'SAgain do fund Tvind! I don't know, but it seems all very fishy to me.

This is what Planet Aid claims about its activities on its bins. Sounds good, doesn't it? Don't be fooled.

Readers who have clothing or other things to donate, in areas where NJSOCF hasn't yet scheduled a pickup (or who, like me, missed a pickup), might want to look for a Goodwill, Salvation Army, or other reputable charity rather than either Planet Aid or U'SAgain.
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It seems to me that Pathmark should have the U'SAgain bin in the parking lot of its South Orange store removed as well as the yellow bin for Planet Aid in its Bergen Street parking lot in Newark. If some landlord (e.g., NCC in Newark) has permitted such Tvind bins over Pathmark's objection, Pathmark and its (relatively new) parent, A&P, should very publicly distance Pathmark from that decision and urge its customers not to put donations into Tvind bins.