After Ariz. Tragedy, Two Tucson Charities See Outpouring of Support

Charity has become an important outlet for people who want to show their solidarity with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in Tucson.

In a statement issued on Sunday, U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, the Congresswoman’s husband, thanked the public for its support and mourned the loss of the six people who had died. He asked that people who wanted to help to consider making donations to two Tucscon charities.

“There is little that we can do but pray for those who are struggling,” Captain Kelly said in the statement. “If you are inspired to make a positive gesture, consider two organizations that Gabby has long valued and supported: Tucson’s Community Food Bank and the American Red Cross.”

The effect of his request was immediate.

“Right now the people in our development office, all they’re doing is answering phones,” Bill Carnegie, chief executive of the Community Food Bank, said on Monday morning.

Early in the day, the organization’s Web site was not working due to a weekend power failure. The site went back online around 9 a.m. Arizona time, and in the next 15 minutes, the food bank received more than $5,000 in Internet contributions. The group has received phone calls from as far away as Britain asking how to donate.

Mr. Carnegie says the shooting has hit food-bank employees hard. Ms. Giffords visited the charity in December, and the mother of Gabriel M. Zimmerman, a 30-year-old congressional aide who was killed on Saturday, is a regular volunteer.

“There’s just this deep sadness in Tucson,” said Mr. Carnegie. “We may be a city of a million people, but it feels like a small town.”

Giving Blood

Over the weekend, the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Red Cross, the other charity named in Captain Kelly’s statement, responded to the tragedy by sending mental-health teams to places around the city where people were gathering.

The organization also coordinated an effort to replenish local hospitals’ blood supply. By Monday, the region had enough blood to meet “urgent needs,” according to the local Red Cross, but the group said additional donations would be welcomed.

Like the food bank, the Tucson chapter of the Red Cross has established a fund to receive contributions in honor of Ms. Giffords.

Jennifer M. Tersigni, the group’s chief development and public information officer, estimated that the volume of telephone calls on Monday was at least a tenfold increase over a regular weekday. She said that the organization has 20 telephone lines and that at points during the day, staff members were unable to get a line to make an outgoing call.

“We have gotten a lot of phone calls,” said Ms. Tersigni. “And they’re coming in from all over the country.”