In a statement released on Friday, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has declared March 2020 to be American Red Cross Month.
During the month of March, the American Red Cross of Alaska celebrates its volunteer heroes and asks people across Alaska to be a hero too by donating on Red Cross Giving Day (March 25), becoming a volunteer, or learning skills that save lives.
Volunteers represent more than 90 percent of the Red Cross workforce and help people every day — often after home fires, which represent most of the disasters that the Red Cross responds to every eight minutes in the U.S. Over the past fiscal year (July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019) volunteers helped over 1,000 people affected by home fires and other local disasters in Alaska.
Among the Red Cross initiatives impacting Alaskans has been the Home Fire Campaign, which KSRM reported on earlier in February, which aims to provide free smoke detectors and fire safety plans to homes across the state and the peninsula.
Red Cross Regional Communications Officer Cari Dighton: “Some people don’t know, they don’t have the resources, or they have alarms that maybe they can’t reach because they don’t have the right ladder, or they’re not sure how to test them. So, that’s really what we’re going in for. Aside from installing alarms, in as many homes as need them, we also have the second, perhaps more-important part of that goal, the second-half of that goal: talk with families about home fire safety. Talk about testing your smoke alarms every month, making sure that you have fire escape plans, that you know how to get out of your house in two minutes. So, that plan is really key. Also, making sure that everybody knows two exits in every room, and if there are meeting spots outside away from the danger, that everybody knows where that meeting spot is.”
Alaskans can visit redcross.org/Alaska to register for a class in lifesaving skills like CPR and First Aid, become a volunteer for opportunities available across Alaska, or to simply donate.
