National Remember Our Troops Campaign

[Newman]

Trying to get this info out to everyone I can. I hope it is an appropriate post in this area and on this forum. If not I apologize in advance.

The National Remember Our Troops Campaign(NROTC) is a charity working out of Baltimore(specifically Essex). However, they do call nationwide, but so far
they seem to call mostly Maryland.

The group has been around for about 3 years and has operated on the basis that the money raised goes to sending out blue and gold star banners to military families. As far as I know, they have done this as promised. I was one of the first hired to begin telemarketing for them, and one of their goals is the "purple heart fund." Many people believe this is some government based or sponsored fund. I have not seen any evidence of any money being used for this goal.

The man hired as the "Director of Charitable Givings" over Maryland gets 55% of EVERYTHING brought in. An argument broke out because he put up a fight when one person collected door to door in Annapolis. He claimed that he should get 55% of that as well. As far as I know, he's getting it.

Because of this fight, our office was shut down and we were told the operation was closed. I was talked into coming back several days later and informed that it was all a "misunderstanding." When I received my paycheck, it was $15. I have multiple witnesses who were there on days when we were told I had brought in much more on several days than I was paid for. The president and owner denied it ever happened and insisted that I had gotten what I was promised.

Me and the others who began calling initially also helped with cleaning the office up, clearing out garbage for the owner, and I also did invoicing in my spare time to help out, all without pay. We did it because we felt it was a good cause and we were doing a good deed for the charity. I even bought a couple of t-shirts which were SUPPOSED to help send out more banners that the owner said he could not afford to send. He acted incredibly grateful for someone who would turn around and stab me in the back.

The "Director of Charitable Givings," Don Winchester, who gets his 55% cut, has taken such control of the group and of the president that he coerced him
into pawning several valuable items to help him pay his own rent. Where is this 55% going that he needs to have others pawn belongings to pay his rent?

The answer to that may lie in some hearsay, so I present this as such as I was not present. It does fit my knowledge of these two, so take it or leave it. It is a fact that members of the group, specifically Tom and Don, and a couple others, were selling their t-shirts at a bar to "raise funds" for the banners and purple heart fund. From what I was told by others present, the money was largely spent there AT the bar.

They will also lie on the phone, claiming the troops and families get 100% of any donations. Between the 55% that Don gets and the 45% the fundraisers are SUPPOSED to get(but, if my case was any indication), this brings us to 100%... In addition, Tom also gets a percentage(I am not sure of the specific amount).

How is it possible that OVER 100% is going towards pay for employees, managers, and administrative costs? How are the troops and their families getting anything?

If these people call you, do not give them anything. Most of the callers are decent people who think that they're indeed helping out, and have no idea that they are being scammed themselves, and probably won't even get paid. The real criminals here are the management and owner.

If you'd like to see their website for yourself, you can do so by going to http://www.nrotc.org.

Again I hope this post is appropriate to this forum and area. I am simply trying to get the word out about this group.