Scottish Rite takes hit from mail mix-up
Holiday donations intended for North Richmond’s Scottish Rite Childhood Learning Center may have been lost in the mail, the Times-Dispatch reports. Mail that was put on hold for a week and apparently stacked up at a North Richmond post office seems to have disappeared. U.S. Postal Service officials said yesterday that the matter is under investigation. “It […]
Holiday donations intended for North Richmond’s Scottish Rite Childhood Learning Center may have been lost in the mail, the Times-Dispatch reports.
Mail that was put on hold for a week and apparently stacked up at a North Richmond post office seems to have disappeared. U.S. Postal Service officials said yesterday that the matter is under investigation.
“It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Robin Olivier, executive director of the Scottish Rite Childhood Learning Center on Hermitage Road. The center has provided about $1.5 million in donated care since it was founded 16 years ago by the Scottish Rite Temple.
About 90 percent of the now-independent center’s $500,000 annual budget comes from grants, fundraisers and donations, Olivier said. The center provides treatment that often isn’t covered by health insurance.
And it’s at Christmas, also known as tax-deduction time, that the center’s $18,000 fall fundraising campaign reaches its height, she said.
But this most recent campaign had a disappointing end.
Letters, cards and even junk mail that were put on hold beginning Dec. 22 while the center’s office closed for the holidays are missing. So the charity is also missing its year-end donations — from checks to cash tucked away in holiday cards and letters of good will. Checks from insurance companies and other financial data also likely were part of the trove, Olivier said.
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