During the month of March the American Red Cross asks everyone to be a hero in their community by becoming a volunteer, learning lifesaving skills, giving blood or donating to #help1family on Red Cross Giving Day, March 27. More than 75 years ago, in 1943 March was first proclaimed Red Cross Month by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise awareness of the organization and its humanitarian mission. All U.S. presidents since Roosevelt have designated March as Red Cross Month to recognize how the American Red Cross helps people across the country and around the world through its workforce powered by more than 90 percent volunteers.
The need to help people is constant—and the past year of busy disaster activity was no exception. For 324 consecutive days, more than 43,000 people relied on the Red Cross for emergency shelter following events like record wildfires, hurricanes, floods and large apartment fires. From April 2018 to February 2019, more than 11,500 Red Cross volunteers left the comfort of their own homes to provide comfort, care and a safe place to sleep for tens of thousands affected by disasters.
“I’m proud that many of our volunteers from our Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region played instrumental roles in providing disaster relief services to residents throughout the country as well as here in our 27-county region,” said Stephanie Byrd, Regional CEO. “Volunteers like Carolyn Burns of West Carrollton, OH who provided great support to the Montgomery County EOC during the Dayton water outage; Jerry Reardon of Aurora, IN, who spearheaded disaster response, relief and sheltering for those affected by the Budget Inn fire in Fairfield; Wendi Coffelt of Springfield, OH who deployed to California for the wildfires and a spent a month in Saipan, over the holidays, helping those impacted by the Typhoon. I’m grateful to all of our volunteers who give of their time and talent to help others,” Byrd concluded.
Learn more about how you can become a part of the Red Cross by taking a lifesaving class or your through gifts of time, money or blood donation by visiting redcross.org.