Annual Report

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NORTHERN COWLEY COUNTY CHAPTER

AMERICAN RED CROSS

"The organization that translates your care and concern into immediate action."

ANNUAL REPORT 1998-99

Fiscal year ends June 30

Top 10 Reasons to Believe in the American Red Cross.

	1. We help you save lives.
	2. We're there when you need us.
	3. We do things you care about.
	4. We help you protect your family.
	5. We're in your neighborhood, every day.
	6. We're volunteers.
	7. We keep people in touch during emergencies.
	8. We use your money wisely.
	9. We're neutral and independent - not a government agency.
	10. We're YOUR American Red Cross.

Which charity has Money magazine rated #1 in the country?

Your ... American Red Cross!

The November, 1996 issue of Money magazine named the American Red Cross as its "Charity of the Year!" This honor means that of all the major charities the American Red Cross uses more of your donated money to pay for programs and services that directly benefit people. In fact, for every dollar donated 91.5 cents goes directly to help others.

CASE STATEMENT

When a fire destroys your home or a powerful storm devastates your neighborhood...

When your child falls into a swimming pool or a co-worker suffers a heart attack...

When you need blood during emergency surgery...

You can trust the American Red Cross; to shelter and comfort families, to train people to save lives, and to collect, test and ship life-saving blood to local hospitals.

In a crisis, we all depend on the Red Cross. In the local area, caring capable volunteers of the Northern Cowley County Chapter stand ready to help you, your family, and your neighbors to prevent, prepare for, or respond to emergencies. People you can trust and an organization you can believe in, work around the clock to assist local families through crisis and help them to rebuild their lives.

As a grassroots, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, your Northern Cowley County Chapter delivers disaster services quickly and efficiently. Every act of the Red Cross represents a gift from the people who care about neighbors and trust the Red Cross to do the most good with their charitable dollars. Each year more people depend on Red Cross services, and each year it costs more to deliver those services. Unfortunately funding has not kept pace with expenses.

The Red Cross does everything it can to stretch every dollar. Dedicated volunteers and blood donors make this possible. The Red Cross is the nation's most respected charity, thanks to more than 115 years of service and its commitment to relieve human suffering.

Today this commitment translates into real results that improve life in the local area in many tangible ways. We shelter and comfort disaster victims, teach children to swim and adults to save lives, reconnect families separated by disaster or military service, maintain a safe and accessible blood supply and serve through other local programs. Volunteers not only lead the Northern Cowley Chapter but also provide most of its services, often under grave conditions that challenge even the best of us. Your gift will touch countless lives and make a real difference in our chapter.

SERVICES

JUNIOR RED CROSS

This is the chapter’s fourth year in having the Junior Red Cross Youth Club. It is all high school students. The most encouraging factor in this program is that it doubled in membership this past year. Over half of the teens have now had the training in Disaster Services to be part of the monthly on call disaster team. Other activities have been:
* two fund raisers,
* help with the High School Blood Drive,
* and being in the Kanza parade.
They meet monthly on the fourth Monday evening. Currently there are 24 active members.

As shown on the corporate goals, the organizational requirements for the chapter are MUST services. They are shown below followed by SHOULD services.

MILITARY SERVICES

armed services small Whenever members of the Armed Forces serve our country, the American Red Cross stands beside them. At the request of congress the Red Cross provides an around-the-clock emergency communication link for military families. We connect military families in your hometown with their loved one sometimes serving far away. During times of war, families know that if their loved ones serving with the armed forces are taken prisoner, the Red Cross will be able to visit them to ensure they are being well treated and to bring them a message from their loved ones. This year our chapter handled 21 military cases dealing with requests for notification of death, illness and births.

DISASTER EDUCATION

We provide critical information on how to prevent, prepare for, and recover from disasters. Families are able to protect themselves from injuries and death during disasters (from single family fires to tornadoes and flooding) because of Red Cross preparedness materials. Our vision is to save lives and reduce injuries and property damage by educating individuals and communities to cope with and respond to disasters.
rcservices
The chapter provided fire and tornado brochures to Home Health Care this year. In March 1999, we held an Introduction to Disaster course for 12 teens. This qualified them to be a member of our on call disaster team each month with an adult team leader. Following the course we had our yearly disaster drill. There were 26 volunteers involved in the mock disaster. The scenario included a service center in which 40 cases were opened and services were provided after the damage assessment was complete. Mass Care was provided for the workers in the service center. The individual case requirements ranged from medical assistance to basic emergency needs such as food, clothing and rent.

Our Junior Red Cross provided available disaster educational material by passing out brochures on fires and tornadoes, how to prepare family disaster kits, etc. in the Kanza parade in May.

DISASTER RESPONSE

people helping people small It is difficult to predict when a disaster could strike. What we can predict is that your Red Cross neighbors will be there to help. We respond immediately. Red Cross is on the scene whenever there's a disaster. You can trust us to help the victims (to do the things you'd do yourself if you were there). Providing food, a place to stay, maybe some new clothes. We're available as long as necessary after the disaster in order to meet the needs that are unique to each disaster.

When there are no large-scale disasters to respond to, the local chapter provides mass care services to emergency workers. An example is at fires that involve a large number of people working a considerable number of hours. We provide food and drink on these types of operations.

Another kind of disaster response we provide is a Disaster Welfare Inquiry. We keep families in touch by verifying the location and condition of family members caught in disasters throughout the United States. Many people do not know we can provide this service. However, we did service one request regarding a family member possibly involved in a tornado in Wisconsin. The local family member received the news through us that their relative was just fine even though their home was destroyed.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICES

Through the American Red Cross international tracing network, which reaches into communities throughout the world, we are sometimes able to reunite family members who have been separated by war conflict. We received no requests for this service this year.

We are able to provide information to anyone who wants to know more about International Red Cross activities. Also, we have information on who you can contact if you are going overseas and something should happen to you. There were two such requests this year.

SHOULD SERVICES - (Not mandatory)

DISASTER

(Single Family Fires)

animated graphic by: MAHTAR@HORIZON.HIT.NET

Our disaster team members (three different people are on call each month) help people during the direst times of their lives, when fire strikes their homes. They offer a shoulder to cry on and guidance on how to rebuild their lives after a disaster. As a caseworker, our volunteer will find out the immediate needs and help wherever possible. They will carry out the casework to meet additional needs when the victim is ready to start thinking about rebuilding their lives.

Northern Cowley County Chapter feels that this is a vitally important service to provide even though the organization does not require it. Each year money to assist is put in the budget based on a 5 year average of previous amount spent.

The Disaster Action Team (DAT), responded to considerably fewer house fires than in most years. They responded to 5 incidents and 3 cases were opened. The amount of money spent was $1,329.78.

BLOOD SERVICES

We provide vital, lifesaving blood for people who need it. This is the most personal and precious gift possible because volunteer donors are giving the gift of life. The donors took an hour out of their busy schedules (at least once this year) to donate blood for someone in need; someone they didn't even know. American Red Cross provides about one half of the nation's blood supply, and Northern Cowley County collected 1,006 units this year at 19 different Blood Drives. This is 92% of our overall year goal of 1,095 units.

blood

HEALTH & SAFETY

Through the selfless efforts of people like you, we reduce the incidence and severity of injuries and save countless lives by training people in health and safely courses, such as CPR, First Aid, Lifeguard, Swimming, and HIV/AIDS. Over 990 people spent time to get First Aid and CPR training so if their spouse, neighbor, or co-worker should ever have a personal emergency, they would know how to help. We expanded this service this year for the City of Winfield and G.E. employees. We also began training for USD 465 coaches and staff.

The Red Cross also helps people enjoy water sports with greater safety. Here in this area, we have a number of Health and Safety programs as listed below. 71 instructors authorized through our chapter taught a total of 227 classes. The total of our Health & Safety classes (which includes First Aid, CPR, and AIDS education) is 184 with total enrollment of 1,379.

HEALTH & SAFETY

swimming

Youth Services

The following are the Health & Safety services for the youth.
	Classes	Enrolled
Infant & Preschool Aquatics	1	83
Level 1-7 Learn to Swim Program	30	757
Lifeguard Training	1	12
Water Safety Aide	1	10
Safety Training for Swim Coaches	1	10
Act Smart HIV/AIDS	6	486
Whales Tales	1	192
Baby-sitting	2	57
Totals for youth classes	43	1,607

The following are MAY services that our chapter provides for our area. These are developed according to local needs and vary among chapters nationwide. We hope to continue to respond when there are critical local needs not already being met.

FOOD PANTRY REFERRALS

The chapter provided 21 referrals to the local food pantry for a total of 41 adults and 32 children. We are still working closely with other helping agencies in the community. We feel the number of referrals are down. In fact it is less than half as many due to the stricter guidelines the Food Pantry has adopted. There is a form we use which requires the person to now show us an I.D.. We feel like this is a beneficial change because it has stopped some of the abuse.

HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT

Loan Closet

We had 32 individuals that we provided this service for this year. We sometimes have to refer calls to other resources because we don't always have the equipment they request. If the number of requests continue to decrease, partly due to Medicare benefits, we may discontinue this program. We also are not receiving as many items donated that we can loan out.

BLOOD PRESSURE CHECK STATIONS

The Southwestern College Student Nurses Association conducted 4 blood pressure checks this year with 158 people being screened. They were held at Walmart and Dillons.

OTHER ASSISTANCE CASES

We assisted 59 families financially for utilities, gas money and other ways they were in need. 21 of these families were Project Deserve grant recipients in the amount of $3,118.24. 38 families received help through the local chapter budget in the amount of $1,662.08

1998-99 SERVICES DELIVERY EXPENSES

SERVICE	EXPENSES
Disaster	$ 11,867.23
Military	$ 9,715.07
Health & Safety	$ 12,043.47
Blood	$ 4,092.99
Management	$ 3,737.39
Other Assistance	$ 1,662.08
Total	$ 43,118.23

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May 26, 2000