Upstate Chapter Helped More Than 1,100 People Rebuild Their Lives

The core of Red Cross disaster relief is the assistance given to individuals and families affected by disaster to enable them to resume their normal daily activities independently. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, clothing, health & mental health serivces to address basic human needs.

In addition to these services, the Red Cross also feeds emergency workers, handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area and helps those affected by disaster to access other available resources.

Over the past year, the Upstate Chapter responded to 268 local disaster and assisted 1,141 individuals in rebuilding their lives. The sole community provider of these types of services, the Upstate Chapter is a private, non-profit organization that depends primarily on local donations and volunteer support to meet its mission of disaster response and preparedness. Each year, the Chapter must anticipate the community's needs and budget its services accordingly.

The 2006-2006 fiscal year was a record for the Upstate Chapter in terms of supporting our communities and a record in terms of contributions.

Katrina was largely responsible for the record donations. When funds are sent for a specific disaster, they are forwarded to the Disaster Relief Fund-the funds do not stay in the local accounts. Nonetheless, the Chapter was able to commit more than $410,000 to local disaster response, which was nearly three times our budget. Without the generosity of the community-individuals, business leaders, and the United Way-over and above the Karina donations, this commitment would not have been possible.

In addition to the disaster response, the Red Cross also provides ongoing health and safety training and education in a number of specialized outreach efforts. These include programs for the Hispanic community, youth leadership, CPR and First Aid training, Certified Nurse Assistant training, water safety, and more.

It might have been a record year of need within our communities, but is was also a record year of volunteer and financial response.