March is National Red Cross Month

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – President Franklin Roosevelt declared March as National Red Cross Month 80-years-ago to bring awareness to the humanitarian organization and Executive Director of the East Central Ohio Chapter of the American Red Cross Rod Cook talked about how the organization serves locally in 2023.

“Most of the public, when they think of the Red Cross they think about is that we are the community vampires because we’re constantly begging people to donate blood. But we are so much more than that. Our Disaster program, about 96 percent of our disaster responses are to local housefires, Cook said.”

The Red Cross also works with communities on how to prepare for natural disasters as well as working with the public by offering First-Aid and CPR training.

“Contrary to popular belief, we are not a government agency. However, we live under congressional mandates,” Cook said. “So our ‘Service to Armed Forces’ program and our ‘Disaster’ programs are both congressionally mandated. However we don’t receive funding for that.”

The American Red Cross manages many ‘behind the scenes’ tasks so well that they often go unnoticed.

To learn more about what the Red cross has to offer locally or to donate, you can visit redcross.org.