Fires, tornadoes, floods: the Harrisburg area and Central Pennsylvania aren’t exempt from these disasters and when they strike, volunteers with a local chapter of the American Red Cross are there to lend a hand and someone to lean on for comfort.
The American Red Cross wants you to realize it’s about more than collecting blood donations, offering swimming and CPR classes, and responding to large scale disasters. Chris Weidenhammer, Regional Director for Emergency Services, said people don’t realize the Red Cross responds to disasters on a daily basis, such as house fires and gas leaks.
“We’ve always tried to educate the fire chiefs, county leaders, and the public that we’re around for the smaller incidents as much as the larger incidents,” Weidenhammer said.
The Lancaster County chapter of the American Red Cross assisted in such an incident. Joan Decker and her husband lost their home in a fire in 2010. Two volunteers came to help the Deckers and provided them with some necessities and a place to stay.
“I will be forever grateful to the Red Cross for assistance given to my husband and myself during our house fire,” Decker says in a letter written to the Red Cross. “Instead of gifts for my birthday, I asked for donations to your efforts to help those overcoming fire disasters, like myself.”
Another service The Red Cross offers, which much of the general public isn’t aware of, is emergency communication for Armed Forces. In the event of a death in the family, or the birth of a child, the organization can bring the service member home.
“We’re more or less a conduit between families that are state-side and service members overseas,” Weidenhammer said.
While responding to 650-700 disasters a year, regional chapters of the America Red Cross are prepared for everything. The last major disaster still on many peoples’ minds is the flooding from Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011. With 129 volunteers, the Red Cross set up 10 shelters in the Capitol region alone, which consists of Dauphin, Cumberland, and Perry counties. 395 people spent 1,127 overnight stays in those shelters. Volunteers served 5,257 meals, and 8,945 snacks.
Tropical Storm Lee cost $3.4 million for the Capital region and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area in Northeastern Pennsylvania. That money was raised through donations. “We get all our funding from the American people. We receive no government funding whatsoever. It’s just the generosity of the American People and through grants and foundations,” Weidenhammer said.
Whether you give $5 or $10, that’s just one way you can help your local American Red Cross. Another way is through volunteering. From helping families cope following a house fire, to working at a disaster shelter, even office work and data entry, The Red Cross would love your help.
To learn more how you can donate time or money, go to www.sqvalleyredcross.org.
