Ala. publisher urges donations at football games across nation

Ben Shurett, the publisher of Alabama's Fort Payne Times-Journal, is asking every person who attends local high school and college football games to contribute one dollar to hurricane victims.

The theme is "One nation, one person, one dollar."

In a letter to the editor published in Saturday's Southeast Missourian, Shurett said he hopes high schools and colleges across the nation will begin collecting money for the American Red Cross at their football games.

Just before the kickoff at games held last Friday in Alabama's DeKalb County, high school Key Club and Student Council members passed buckets up and down the rows of spectators, asking each person to give a dollar or more. He hopes DeKalb County's example catches on, pointing that more than 500,000 people attend high school football games in Alabama on Friday nights. Another 170,000 go to the home games of the University of Alabama and Auburn.

Shurett sent an e-mail to every publisher and editor in Alabama, and the Alabama Press Association director sent it to every other press association director in the country.

"This is a disaster unlike any we have ever had in the U.S. before," he said. "The need is greater than we've ever had before, and those who have the least have lost the most. Whatever anybody can contribute will be a Godsend."

All of the money will go directly to the local Red Cross chapter.

"We're not in the business of collecting money nor are we in the business of deciding who gets it," Shurett said. "They are the professionals."