Month of the Red Cross
March is a particularly exciting time all of us at your local American Red Cross, because March is Red Cross Month!. We have many projects in the works for March in the Syracuse area. Our goal is to help to make our community as healthy, safe, and as prepared as possible.
The American Red Cross of Central New York is the third oldest Red Cross chapter in the United States, founded in October 1881, less than six months after Clara Barton established the national Red Cross. We have been responding to local disasters ever since, helping families to get back on their feet after they experience the unimaginable. We also work to strengthen the community through our other humanitarian lines of service: community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that teach health and safety; and international relief and development programs. Our organization is volunteer-driven, and voluntary service is a pivotal component of our basic principles that govern the impartial, universal, and humane ways in which the Red Cross serves society. Through responding to more than 150 local disasters each year, putting hundred of service members and their families in contact during times of crisis, holding blood drives during which we collect tens of thousands of pints of live-saving blood from generous donors, teaching disaster preparedness skills to the most vulnerable in our society, and teaching CPR to brave everyday citizens, the Red Cross makes a difference every day in helping our fellow community members to be ready, to be healthy, and to be safe so that they might live their lives to the fullest.
Our AmeriCorps team has been working in the Onondaga and OswegoCounty communities since October of last year, educating the population about Disaster Preparedness. We have done informational sessions and presentations with senior citizen groups, school programs, groups of caretakers for individuals with special needs, businesses and corporations, and many more. Our goal is simple: to educate as many people as possible about the live-saving effects of being prepared for disasters, so they in turn can educate their families, friends, and neighbors about this important and useful information. Our basic steps for disaster preparedness are: Get a kit, make a plan, and be informed! These basic steps will help you, your family, and your loved ones, be safe and ready to handle anything that might be thrown your way.
Red Cross Month is a celebratory time for us. We are able to honor and thank those that volunteer for the life-changing work they do, as well as recruit future volunteers with stories of humanitarian triumph. However, it is not a time to rest. We have much great educational information to disseminate!. For Red Cross Month, we have many great community events planned to spread the word about the Red Cross. The events include presentations, community tabling and AmeriCorps Week, when we will be doing community service and spreading Red Cross safety information all throughout the city of Syracuse, building upon our success in the last few months helping people prepare and be safe. We will be working with other AmeriCorps members from across the state in hopefully educating all about the great, import work of The American Red Cross.
For more information on events in the community coming up, feel free to visit our Facebook page: Facebook.com/ARCCNY.
