American Red Cross

After observing the success of the International Red Cross in Europe, social reformer and nursing pioneer Clara Barton (1821–1912) founded the American Red Cross on May 21, 1881, to provide assistance for Americans suffering from disasters or serving on the battlefield. As a representative of the organization, Barton, who served as president until 1904, provided assistance during the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood of 1889 and during the Galveston, Texas, tidal wave disaster of 1900. During the Spanish-American War (1898) in Cuba, Barton brought order to chaos, offering food and medicine that the army had been too disorganized to provide.

Synonymous with compassionate service, the Red Cross responds to more than 70,000 disasters each year, including fires, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, and explosions. In the field, Red Cross workers provide shelter, food, physical and mental health services, financial assistance, transportation, medications, and tools. The Red Cross also serves as a liaison with government agencies and insurance agencies; and when all other avenues are exhausted, the Red Cross provides long-term assistance.

In addition to providing disaster relief, the American Red Cross oversees the collection, testing, storage, and distribution of the nation's blood supply. Because a blood transfusion is needed every two seconds in the United States, the work of the Red Cross in this area is essential to the health of Americans.

Other services offered by the organization include providing community assistance for the economically disadvantaged, supporting and comforting members of the military and their families, and offering health and safety education, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), first aid, and lifeguarding classes. At the international level, the American Red [Page 114]Cross provides disaster relief and establishes development programs.

Although the American Red Cross has some 35,000 paid employees who work in 800 locally supported chapters, the heart of the organization is the nearly 1 million volunteers who provide expert training, compassion, and labor. Required to respond within two hours to any emergency, Red Cross workers go across the country, as was the case after terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and when Hurricane Katrina devastated America's Gulf Coast in late August 2005. When evacuees were spread across the country after New Orleans flooded in the wake of Katrina, the Red Cross set up a special Web site to facilitate communication among family members who had lost contact with one another. In addition to offering financial and health support, the Red Cross provided psychologists and counselors to furnish emotional support to Katrina victims.

Through affiliation with the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent organization, the American Red Cross extends help wherever it is needed. For instance, in 2005, workers traveled to Pakistan and northern India after an earthquake devastated the area at a cost of 74,000 lives. Relief efforts continued as the organization sought to assist the 3.5 million people who were left homeless in the wake of the earthquake. Efforts to aid Indonesian children who have been devastated by two tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and a measles epidemic are also ongoing. Other international projects include immunization programs in Angola, Kenya, Sudan, and Bangladesh and a housing program in Sri Lanka. Recognizing that each day, 850 million people in the world go hungry and 20,000 individuals die from starvation, the American Red Cross celebrates World Food Day each October to draw the attention of the American people to world hunger.

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