Save Our Blues group stands down

The Save Our Blues organization that has been soliciting donations while encouraging a letter-writing campaign aimed at ending the flight demonstration team’s grounding because of federal budget cuts has abruptly suspended its campaign.

Ron Nelson, director of the Pensacola-based group, said he had learned from a report in the Pensacola News Journal on Saturday that Save Our Blues hasn’t complied with Florida’s state regulations that campaigns seeking donations for nonprofit causes must be registered in Tallahassee.

Further, Nelson said that after a conversation earlier this week with a Navy attorney in Texas, he has dropped use of the Blue Angels logo, which his group had reproduced on its website.

Nelson said he used the Blues signature crest on his website after “miscommunication” in a phone conversation last month with a Navy official in Texas.

“My assumption was that I had permission,” Nelson said.

One part of the Save Our Blues campaign was to raise $50,000 for the National Naval Aviation Museum, but officials at that institution have disavowed any connection with Save Our Blues.

Although the Save Our Blues website included a disclaimer that it isn’t affiliated with either the museum or the Blue Angels, a strengthened version of that clause appeared on Wednesday.

Source:  http://www.pnj.com