American Red Cross

The American Red Cross is an organization dedicated to saving lives at any cost
and the spread of disaster awareness, preparation, and prevention. It is a
division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that
shares the same goals with a global perspective. The American Red Cross focuses on
several main objectives:

• The support of the serving military and their families
• The development of community services that aid the needy
• The collection and distribution of blood
• The spread of health and safety awareness along with the necessary education
• Timely and effective domestic disaster relief

The America Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton. Clara was working as a
teacher when the Civil War began. She left her job as a teacher to pursue humanitarian
efforts that included the nursing of the American soldiers. When the war ended, she took a
vacation from her work. While vacationing in Europe, she discovered and joined the
International Red Cross and was inspired to bring their ideals back to America with her. In
1873, she began planning his organization and not until 1881, under the presidency of
Chester Arthur, did Clara establish the official American Red Cross with the foundation
that the new organization would be available to respond to different types of disasters.
Barton became the first president of the American Red Cross. With the aid of a sizeable
donation from John D. Rockefeller, the American Red Cross has a national headquarters
located in Washington D.C.

The American Red Cross consists of almost one million volunteers nation-wide
with 35,000 employees that dedicate their time to the organization. This humanitarian
effort is divided into over 700 locally operated chapters that offer the services that the
American Red Cross is based upon. Within this local chapters, blood drives are
responsible for the collection of blood from over four million donors, making it the largest
distributor of blood in the United States. These local communities help to educate the
public with the knowledge needed to prepare for and respond to disasters around the
world. Of every one dollar donated to the ARC, 91 cents is set aside solely for use in the
execution of their humanitarian objectives.

The ARC also helps the families of the American Armed Forces serving over seas
by offering them around-the-clock communication from their homes to the battlefield,
financial assistance, and counseling for both soldiers and families. They also support the
families of veterans with similar financial and counseling assistance.

The ARC is perhaps best known for its devotion to disaster relief. Whenever
disasters, like fires, famines, and floods, occur any where in the world, the ARC sends
immediate aid in the form of shelter, food, and health services. They seek to heal and
console not only those that live in the disaster area but their families outside the disaster
area with the hopes that those people’s lives with return to normalcy as soon as possible.

• In 1906, San Francisco was hit by a massive earthquake that lead to subsequent fires. President Roosevelt called on the American Red Cross to lead a major relief effort and they responded with food supplies and medical assistance.
• After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, the ARC acted quickly by sending food and blood donations to aid the victims.
• During the 2005 hurricane season, the ARC arranged shelters for over 3.8 million victims made homeless by the hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. Over 200,000 (non-paid) volunteers worked to ensure that they saved as many families as possible and helped those families attempt to get back into financially and emotionally regular lives.
• After the 2004 tsunami struck Indonesia, the American Red Cross responded quickly with what they call their six core program areas: "shelter, livelihoods, water and sanitation, health, psychosocial support and disaster preparedness."