Page 30 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2016

COASTNOTES
CELEBRATING
“I request that during March our people rededicate themselves to the splendid aims and activities of the Red Cross.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
first Presidential Proclamation of March as Red Cross Month, 1943.
story by John McFarland
Since 1943 every president has designated March as Red Cross month, a time to recognize our nation’s everyday heroes
— tens of thousands of trained volunteers who respond to a community disaster every eight minutes, providing shelter, food, emotional support and other necessities
to those affected, and provide 24-hour support to members of the military and their families, and who collect an average of 14,000 units of blood every day to ensure blood products are available when needed.
Chartered by Congress in 1900, the American Red Cross “prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.” It’s the only congressionally mandated organization to provide aid to victims of disaster and is responsible for fulfilling the mandates of the Geneva Convention in the United States.
Though congressionally chartered,
the Red Cross is not a federally funded organization; it’s a non-profit, charitable organization funded by public donations. Moreover, the American Red Cross workforce is primarily volunteer: across the country the organization includes 23,000 paid professionals and 330,000 trained volunteers.
In the past year, the 882 trained volunteers in the 28-county Southeast Mississippi chapter responded to more than 625 disaster incidents, mostly single family fires. Our volunteers assisted 787 families; conducted or attended 12,900 hours of disaster operations training; taught lifesaving first aid and other safety classes to 6,100 participants; installed
more than 1,200 smoke alarms; collected 9,200 units of blood; assisted 623 military families with emergency assistance; briefed 11,770 military families before and after deployment; and performed a variety of other community services totaling more than 25,500 volunteer service hours.
When tornadoes struck north Mississippi on Dec. 23, Red Cross volunteers from around the state — including South Mississippi — immediately responded, providing food, shelter and other assistance. For the third year in a row, Mississippi Red Cross volunteers spent their Christmas and New Year’s holidays in the field providing relief to their neighbors.
In February, tornadoes hit five counties in the Meridian area. Again, local Red Cross volunteers were on the scene immediately, providing disaster relief and working with other government and nonprofit partners to help families get their lives back together.
Reducing home fire deaths has become
a priority of the American Red Cross. Teaming with fire departments across the nation, Red Cross volunteers have been canvassing neighborhoods providing fire safety tips to residents and installing or replacing smoke alarms at no cost. The American Red Cross has set a goal to reduce home fire fatalities by at least 25 percent
in five years by increasing the presence of smoke alarms.
This month is a good time to become a Red Cross volunteer. Whatever you like to do, there’s a job for you. We’ll provide the training. Visit our website www.RedCross. org/Mississippi for more information or to make a donation.
30 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • March 2016 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
Month