Montana Red Cross Honors Volunteers during National Volunteer Week

This National Volunteer Week, April 6 - 12, the American Red Cross of Montana is celebrating its volunteers and the work they do in our local communities to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies.

Over 300 volunteers serve with Montana Red Cross alone. Nationally, the Red Cross has nearly 400,000 volunteers, which represent more than 90 percent of the Red Cross workforce.

“Our volunteers respond to house fires, teach lifesaving skills, support our military members in the community and much more,” said Colleen Tone, Disaster & Program Officer at Montana Red Cross, “They help us fulfill our lifesaving mission every day, and we are deeply grateful for their service.”

Last year Montana Red Cross volunteers provided food, shelter, comfort and hope to 568 individuals who faced home fires and other disaster situations. They trained 14,401 people in lifesaving skills and provided pre-deployment briefings to 2,495 military families as well as 1,081 other services to military members, veterans and their families.

They also helped collect 40,000 units of blood for 30 hospitals in Montana. On average, the Red Cross must collect about 15,000 pints of blood every day from volunteer blood donors to meet the needs of patients at approximately 2,700 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.

The Red Cross invites Montanans to sign up to volunteer and be a part of the lifesaving work it does. “While we welcome volunteers of all ages and skill levels, we especially need professional-level volunteers who can take on leadership roles in disaster response,” explains Tone. ”These roles require long-term commitment, training and follow-through.”

Anyone who wants to learn more about disaster response or other volunteer opportunities at Red Cross can go to redcross.org/montana and submit a volunteer application.

They can also download the Team Red Cross app through which they can sign up to help, get an overview on basic tasks and receive notifications about local Red Cross volunteer opportunities. The Team Red Cross App can be found in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store by searching for American Red Cross or by going to redcross.org/mobileapps.

You can help people affected by disasters at home and around the world, by making a donation to support American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for and provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance in response to disasters. Visit http://www.redcross.org/montana or call 1-800-ARC-MONT (1-800-272-6668). Contributions may also be sent to American Red Cross of Montana, 1300 28th Street South, Great Falls, MT 59405.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

 

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