$1.3 Million Is Raised for Families of Victims

More than $1.3 million was raised in the last three days in the Southland for families of those killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

An estimated 5,000 people drove Sunday to Edison Field in Anaheim, donating $780,710. Donations ranged from $1 to $10,000, Red Cross officials said.

Drivers inched along in three lanes in the parking lot to pass donation stands staffed by scores of Red Cross workers with clipboards. Other people parked and joined the event, which had booths, firetrucks and helicopters for children to explore.

“It’s incredible,” said a Red Cross spokeswoman. “We expected a large number of people, but nothing like this. This has been a place for Orange County people to come together and grieve and talk.”

Emelia Gabriel, 9, cracked open her piggy bank and brought her life savings of $40.

“I gave it to the kids who don’t have any money because their parents died,” she said while biting into a chocolate chip cookie, the Red Cross reward for her good deed. “I feel good that some people get to have some of my money.”

Anyone heading down to the Rose Bowl on Friday and Saturday might have thought it was a game day, as lines of drivers formed to donate to The Southern California Cares Disaster Relief Drive.

The drive netted more than $350,000, said Lt. Lisa Perrine of the Pasadena Police Department. “That doesn’t include a couple of big buckets of coins they’ve yet to count and separate donations to the Salvation Army and firefighters,” she said. “It was really heartwarming to see everyone giving.”

Pasadena police along with NBC4, KFWB, the Pasadena Fire Department, the San Gabriel Valley chapter of the Red Cross and Salvation Army sponsored the event. Firefighters used their rubber boots to collect donations as motorists drove through.

A Red Cross spokesman said that at Dodger Stadium on Friday, another drive organized by KABC raised an additional $225,000.