BAY AREA QUAKE : Donations Still Pouring Into S.F.

Charitable donations for earthquake relief continued to pour into the Bay Area on Thursday, with new gifts ranging from $5 of “birthday money” from 11-year-old Stacy Shuler of Ohio to $1.4 million from major league baseball.

Major league baseball’s contribution to the newly formed Northern California Earthquake Relief Fund was announced at a press conference here by Commissioner Fay Vincent. Vincent also said that ABC-TV agreed to broadcast appeals for donations during the World Series, which resumes today.

The $1.4-million gift from baseball topped the largest known contributions to date, two $1-million gifts to the American Red Cross from brewer Anheuser-Busch and Hanson Industries, the British maker of Jacuzzi baths and Farberware. Sony Corp. gave $1 million to United Way.

All told, about $40 million has been pledged by companies and individuals to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and various municipal relief funds. The total includes donations to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which is also providing assistance to victims of Hurricane Hugo.

The outpouring of support included $7.2 million from Japanese companies, including the $1 million from Sony, $500,000 from Toyota and $300,000 from Nissan. Komatsu donated two 22-ton hydraulic excavators worth $180,000 each to Caltrans.

Other big corporate givers included Chevron, $600,000; Shell Oil, $500,000; Pacific Gas & Electric, $500,000, and Levi Strauss, $500,000.

The Jewish Federation kicked in $250,000, and volunteers for San Francisco’s Project Open Hand, which normally provides meals-on-wheels for people with AIDS, cooked and delivered 47,600 meals to earthquake victims throughout the region last week.

Dozens of companies sent their own products. The Washington Apple Commission delivered a truckload of apples, Idaho sent 100,000 pounds of potatoes and the government of Costa Rica flew in 2,500 pounds of coffee. The coffee sacks were labeled “from San Jose, Costa Rica, to our sister city San Jose, California.”

Artist Leroy Neiman, in San Francisco to draw the World Series and a Halloween ball, said he will donate a portion of the proceeds of his sales to earthquake relief efforts. He said in an interview that he is returning the favor to “a city that supplies me a good deal of inspiration and support.”

Susan Andrus of San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos’ office said hundreds of people from around the world have responded to the quake.

“This morning, we got a cashier’s check for 101 deutsche marks and a note from a German man who’d been here 20 years ago,” she said.

Eight-year-old Andrew Campbell of San Diego, a second-grader, sent Agnos a note that read: “I know that one person cannot give all the money to pay for the damage of the earthquake. So, if it is OK, can everybody give $2 to help the Bay Bridge? Here’s my $2.”