LOW-PERCENTAGE OF FUND-RAISER BACK TO DARE

BOGALUSA - Officials from a Baton Rouge-based company have been in
the city recently, but the DARE funds they are raising may not be
getting back to local programs.

Charlie Thames is affiliated with SMG and is based in Baton Rouge.
His company is a fund-raising organization and recently had people
working in Bogalusa on behalf of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).

The only problem is that for every dollar someone "donates" to DARE
through Thames' firm, only about a nickel makes it to the organization.

"It's all legal," Thames said. "We have a contract with DARE America
and do this all over the country."

"This," according to one local resident who was solicited after
shopping at Winn-Dixie, was to ask for donations to DARE. The
resident, who made a donation and received a receipt, said she asked
the solicitor how much money stayed in Washington Parish.

"He said he was from Baton Rouge and didn't know," she said.

Upon verifying the "donation" with her online bank account, the donor
said she noticed there was sales tax charged to her "donation." In
addition, while she felt she was making a donation to DARE, the
transaction showed online as "Sentinel Market" while the receipt
shows "SMG Charity."

Thames said there was no donation, but rather a purchase of DARE merchandise.

"That's why there was a sales tax," he said.

But the donor maintains she was told she would receive the items - a
plastic coffee cup and a T-shirt - in exchange for the donation.

"There was no purchase," she said, adding, "I was asked for a
donation and felt I was making a donation."

"No, it was a donation," Thames said. "We charged the sales tax
because we have to (collect tax) on every sale."

The donor was disappointed to learn that only about a nickel on the
dollar - or 75 cents - would go to DARE and that the odds of any of
those few coins making it back to Washington Parish were slim.

"That's not what I wanted," she said