The American Red Cross of Upstate South Carolina serves Greenville, Abbeville, Anderson, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, and Pickens Counties.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Telethon on WYFF Tomorrow - We NEED your help

The Chapter will once again be partnering with WYFF for a telethon to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The telethon is tomorrow, September 1st, from 5:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.

We NEED your help! Please call 271-8222 as soon as possible and sign up for a two-hour shift to help answer phones at the telethon. When you call, ask for Ginger or Amy or Genean and they will sign you up.

Check out the WYFF website.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Red Cross Needs Your Help

The following message is from Marty Evans, President and CEO, American Red Cross:

The extent of damage and loss of life caused by Hurricane Katrina is still unfolding; however, early news reports today indicate that the hurricane has left a trail of utter destruction even as it continues to flood communities far inland. Today, as floodwaters still rise, 80 percent of New Orleans is reported to be under water, and the Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have awakened to extreme damage that will put many thousands of families out of their homes for months on end. Officials believe that this storm will be more costly than Hurricane Andrew, the previous record-breaking hurricane of 1992. In response, the American Red Cross is launching the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster involving thousands of trained disaster relief workers, tons of supplies—and shoulders on which to lean.

Even with the rapid and generous support from our partners and the public, a nationwide, coordinated fundraising effort is necessary to ensure we have the resources to deliver the critical services that Americans trust us to deliver. Effective immediately, we will begin a nationwide Disaster Relief Fund Campaign. Your service area will be working with each chapter to determine the most appropriate goal for your unit.

We anticipate a sustained disaster relief effort, unlike any other in our history, lasting many months. Already, the Red Cross has provided a safe haven for nearly 70,000 evacuees in more than 230 Red Cross shelters - from the panhandle of Florida, across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. However, because Katrina is still wreaking havoc as she tracks northward, we do not have a full report of the damage and services needed, and we do not yet have a firm nationwide fundraising goal. Early estimates indicate that this response could cost as much or more than the sum of the four combined hurricanes during last year’s hurricane, which cost approximately $130 million. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is still to come.

I want to stress that the initial $130 million target is only an estimate and may change, depending on updated damage assessment figures and the amount of assistance needed by the families affected by this event. The Red Cross is committed for the long haul. We will meet the immediate emergency needs of disaster victims in the weeks and months ahead. We are asking field units to continue to educate the public that we anticipate the costs of this disaster to be significant and that we need their help

Upstate volunteers help Katrina relief effort


Two volunteers, Joe Hawkins and Wayne Deitz, left on Sunday morning driving the Emergency Response Vehicle. They went to Little Rock where they will be dispatched to an affected area. Three more volunteers will be leaving on Tuesday.

Gary Yearwood will go to Montgomery, AL, where he will be sent to an affected area to work as a computer technologist. You can read more about Gary's work in today's Greenville News.

Frances Thompson is going to Houston where he will be assigned to a shelter operation and Jean DuRant from Anderson is going to Falls Church, Virginia, where she will be working at the call center. We may have more volunteers leaving in the next day or two.

You can make a donation here.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Youth Council Leadership Volunteers Plan for FY '06


Just got an update from Kelly Davis about plans for next year. You can read the whole story here.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Electronic Greetings Cards


Did you know that you can send Red Cross themed electronic postcards? Neither did I, but they're pretty cool.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Update on National Youth Council volunteering

I'm sure you all remember Kelly Davis who is our our volunteer on the National Red Cross Youth Council, and was formerly the President of the Furman University Red Cross club and member of our Board of Directors. She was at the Chapter recently and gave Ann an update on her current activities.

Excitingly she has been asked to stay on the Council an additional year, so she is now one month into her fourth year on the council. This year she will be the project lead for the Navin Narayan College Scholarship, the Navin Narayan Convention Youth Speaker Award, and the Convention scholarships. She will also work on one more project committee which will probably be the Convention and Youth Institute committee.

In the past she's worked on the Convention and Youth Institute committee and the Measles Initiative committee; she was the project lead for the Navin Scholarship last year as well. She says she's enjoyed meeting the Board of Governors members; her adopted BoG is Doug Dettrick. She has greatly enjoyed the company of BoG members Karen Goodman and Rick Grinnan.

Friday, August 05, 2005

This year I don't want to miss the Motorcycles

Each year that I've been in the Upstate I've always meant to attend the Motorcycle Rally, but somehow something always came up and I never made it. This year I'm determined to get there.

This year the Motorcycle Rally, from which all proceeds benefit the Upstate and Piedmont Chapters of the American Red Cross, is on September 9th and 10th, with the Red Cross Motorcycle Drag Races at the Greer Dragway on Friday 9th and the Red Cross Poker Run on Saturday 10th.

For more information call (864) 271-8222 (Greenville) or (864) 583-8000 (Spartanburg) or check online.

See you there.

One blog created 'every second'

I knew that blogging was becoming more popular, but didn't realize how popular until I saw this piece on the BBC News web site.

What started out as something mostly just done by individuals is now being adopted by businesses as part of their overall marketing strategy. General Motors is a good example of a company using a blog in this way.

I haven't been able to find a good example of a not-for-profit blog, so I guess we'll have to make up our own guidelines as we go along.