Thousands of calls from people offering to donate money to the San Francisco earthquake victims are being handled by NICE/APEX, a Utah-based telemarketing and direct marketing company owned by Cincinnati Bell.

The Red Cross made arrangements with the company to handle calls in case of emergencies like Hurricane Hugo and the earthquake. Extra employees have been called in to handle the calls generated by the earthquake.Kathy K. Carter, vice president of inbound marketing, said the company's telephone centers in Salt Lake City and Ogden can handle more than 100,000 calls per day. In addition to the earthquake- and hurricane-generated calls, the company is handling its regular customers.

Clif Critchlow, vice president of marketing, said the Red Cross has received more than $1 million a day through NICE/APEX since the calls started coming in.

In the middle of the night, printers were awakened from their sleep to postpone regular printing jobs to handle more than 100,000 pieces of pledge mail and specially printed envelopes.

Dave LeForestier, vice president of direct marketing services, said, "Teams of mailroom staff quickly sent out the 40,000 Red Cross pledge forms that the company had printed the first day the calls started.

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Paul N. Benner, print production coordinator for NICE/APEX, said the two printers, John Menotti of Intermountain Envelope and Bud Pannier of Utah Bank Note Co., set aside their own business to print more than 100,000 pledge forms and specially printed envelopes so they could be mailed and get the donations to the Red Cross for quick transfer to the victims.

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