Red Cross Asks People to Join During Red Cross Month

Organization Helping Those in Need for 130 Years

TINTON FALLS, NJ, February 16, 2011 — March is Red Cross Month, and the American Red Cross is asking people to join them in helping those in need by volunteering their time, making a donation, taking a class, or giving blood.

“When someone provides a hot meal to a disaster victim, gives blood, takes a first aid class, or helps someone in the military, they join the Red Cross,” said Tara Kelly, CEO of the American Red Cross Jersey Coast Regional Chapter. “We want to say ‘thank you’ to all who support us. That support enables us to provide help and hope to those who need our assistance.”

For nearly 100 years, U.S. Presidents have called on people to support the American Red Cross and its humanitarian mission. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to proclaim March as Red Cross Month in 1943. Since that time, President Obama and every president since have issued proclamations designating March as Red Cross Month.

The Red Cross has been helping people for 130 years, responding to disasters, assisting members of the military, teaching lifesaving skills, and serving as one of the largest blood suppliers in the United States.

Nationally, the Red Cross responds to an average of nearly 200 disasters every day. The organization provides a round-the-clock link between those in the military and their families, and supplies blood and blood products to approximately 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.

In the past year, the Jersey Coast Chapter helped 173 local families who suffered a fire or other emergency and sheltered 1,200 individuals with mass sheltering, assisted 333 military families and trained over 50,000 people in lifesaving skills. And, people from this area donated over 9,000 units of blood.

“We work very diligently to help those in need,” Kelly said. “Whether out on a disaster, alongside our troops, at a blood drive or in a first aid class, Red Cross workers touch the lives of millions of people every year.”

The Red Cross is not a government agency and relies on donations of time, money and blood to do its work.

“When people join the Red Cross by volunteering, donating blood, taking a course or making a contribution, they enable us to continue our work, both here at home, and around the world,” Kelly said.