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BradleySheriff.com
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MARCH IS NATIONAL RED CROSS MONTH |
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Monday, 22 March 2010 |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to declare March to be National Red Cross Month and every president since as followed suit.
The American/International Red Cross is perhaps the best known, non-profit relief agency in the world. And even though March is the time designated to acknowledge the organization, it was actually launched in May: May 21, 1881.
It’s interesting that the Red Cross began in Sweden. America’s most famous nurse, Clara Barton, was visiting Europe shortly after the Civil War when she learned about a “Swiss-inspired International Red Cross Movement.” She was so impressed with the idea that upon her return to the States, she successfully lobbied to bring the concept of an American Red Cross to our shores.
Clara Barton headed up the Red Cross for nearly a quarter century, organizing disaster relief efforts here and abroad and helping the U.S. military during the Spanish-American War. It was Barton who expanded the Red Cross concept to include international peacetime relief efforts. She retired from the Red Cross in 1904, but her dream continued on. The organization has implemented a number of ground-breaking programs, including first aid, water safety and public health nursing.
The Red Cross received a Congressional charter in 1900, and a second in 1905, which endures to this day. The charter defines the overall mission of the Red Cross, including providing relief to Armed Forces personnel, serving as a conduit between American soldiers and their families, providing international and domestic disaster relief, assisting civilian refugees and working to lessen the adverse effects of war and other disasters, including the influenza pandemic of 1918.
When the world went to war in 1914, the Red Cross came into its own. By 1918, the number of charters had grown from 107 to 3,864, and the number of members jumped from 17,000 to over 20 million (not including 11 million “Junior Red Cross” members). They staffed hospitals and ambulance transports and recruited 20,000 RNs to serve the Armed Forces.
After the war, the Red Cross turned their efforts to veterans’ services, safety training, accident prevention, nutrition education and home health. The organization was instrumental in providing disaster relief and assistance during the Mississippi River floods of 1927, the Midwestern droughts and the Depression.
By the time the Second World War broke out, the Red Cross was an integral part of aid and relief, recruiting close to 105,000 nurses for military service, putting together 27 million aid packages for American and Allied POWs, and shipping over 300,000 tons of supplies overseas. It was during this period, the Red Cross implemented the nation’s first major blood program, collecting 13.3 million pints of blood for use by the military.
After WWII, the organization instituted their blood program domestically and today the Red Cross provides almost half the blood and blood products used in this country. While continuing to provide aid and relief to disaster victims, they have expanded into biomedical research, human tissue banking, civil defense, CPR/AED training and HIV/AIDS education, and aiding FEMA during federally declared disasters. They were on the forefront of aid and comfort throughout the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and are active today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Red Cross is an autonomous, volunteer-driven operation supported by voluntary public contributions and cost-reimbursement. According to their website, the American Red Cross “works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross on matters of international conflict and social, political, and military unrest. As a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which it helped found in 1919, the American Red Cross joins more than 175 other national societies in bringing aid to victims of disasters throughout the world.”
I am pleased to acknowledge their good proven work, abroad, nationally and here in our own Bradley County community.
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