Thank you all for supporting us and each other in the wake of the terrible event at Ft. Hood.

We have some updates for you concerning Red Cross activities for Ft Hood:

Thanks to those who donate blood regularly, the Red Cross was able to support local area hospitals as they worked to meet the immediate needs of those injured in the events at Ft. Hood.

At this time, all emergency blood needs have been met. However, it is important for eligible donors to continue to make appointments to donate blood in the coming weeks and months. If you are eligible to give blood or have questions about donating, please call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (800-448-3543) or visit us online at givelife.org.

The Red Cross will continue to support the Armed Services Blood Program upon request and as needed to supply specific blood products.

As with before, families seeking more information can call the Army hotlines at (254) 724-4376 (local) or (866) 836-2751.

• Scott & White Hospital has additional information about blood donation needs
• USArmy is tweeting information

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Our deepest sympathies to those affected by the shootings at Fort Hood today.

UPDATED 10:00 AM EST, FRIDAY NOV. 6

If you are looking for loved ones on Fort Hood you can visit the Red Cross Safe and Well List. In order to complete a search you will need to know the phone number or address of your loved one.

If you are on the post, we encourage you to register on Safe and Well so others know you are safe. If you have spoken to loved ones on Fort Hood, you can register them on Safe and Well by visiting www.redcross.org. Safe and Well does not provide a specific location of those who have registered and all personal information is kept confidential.

We do have personnel who work on the post at Fort Hood. We have been in contact with those staff members and they are safe. The Army has not requested any Red Cross help at this point, but we do stand ready if needed.

The Red Cross has supplied nearly 150 units of blood and blood products to Darnall Army Medical Center and Scott and White Hospital.

Although not all blood donations over the next several days will be needed for the victims of this tragedy, your blood can be used to help treat others with illnesses and injuries.  If you are eligible to give blood or have questions about donating, please call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (800-448-3543) to make an appointment or visit us online at givelife.org. It is important to make an appointment before you show up.

Families seeking more information can call the Army hotlines at (254) 724-4376 (local) or (866) 836-2751.

• Scott & White Hospital has additional information about blood donation needs
• USArmy is tweeting information

Filed under: Blood, Disaster Response | 123 Comments »

CPR is a potentially life-saving skill that most of us know is valuable, but it can be intimidating to take the first step in learning how to perform CPR. I know I’ve wondered before whether I would even have the presence of mind in an emergency to administer CPR correctly. Fears like that are generally unfounded; in most life-threatening situations, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. Additionally, committing time and money to taking a course can be a huge obstacle for many people who find it difficult to give training top priority in their busy schedules. Combine this with the inherent difficulty in feeling an immediate need to prepare for a hypothetical emergency, and you get a unique problem for health and safety preparedness advocates.

With these obstacles in mind, what do you think is the most effective way to approach CPR learning? Should there be a greater variety of ways for people to learn? Or should the focus be more on enabling more institutions to teach and inform people? What would compel you, personally, to take the first step?

Here is some food for thought:

• Currently, the Red Cross offers classes through local chapters.
• Also, as John Solomon recently pointed out in his blog, there is a blended learning option provided by the Red Cross, which allows you to take an online course in your free time before meeting with an actual trainer to be tested and certified.
• Local chapters have also come up with creative ways to promote training, such as the “Singles CPR” events hosted by the Oregon Trail Chapter.

Please comment to let us know if you’ve seen or thought of any ways to motivate people to learn CPR.

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Congratulations to Celebrity Cabinet Member Robinson Cano and his fellow Yankees on their 2009 World Series Championship.

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To celebrate 150 years of helping vulnerable people around the world, Louis Vuitton is partnering with the Red Cross to raise funds.

In November, when you buy one of the four most iconic bags from the company’s USA Web site, 10% of the price will be donated to the American Red Cross.

To add to the excitement, on November 17, Louis Vuitton’s European headquarters office is hosting a charity auction at Sotheby’s in London. Celebrated artists, such as photographer Annie Leibovitz and fashion designer Marc Jacobs, have contributed special travel-themed creations that will benefit the French Red Cross malnutrition program in Niger. Among them will be a one-of-a-kind Red Cross kit.

Here’s the to-die-for description:

“The hard-sided case in Monogram canvas, equipped with Louis Vuitton’s signature natural leather handle, brass S-lock and corners, opens frontally to reveal an array of red and grey aluminum medicine boxes arranged in such a way as to form the familiar emblem of the RedCross. The logo of the Red Cross is hand-painted on the front of the case.”

Five of the special order collaboration pieces, in addition to the Red Cross trunk, will be on display at the Fifth Avenue Maison until November 4.

If you had something more practical in mind for gifts this holiday season, check out our fully-stocked first aid kits or other gifts that save the day.

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Alex Mahoney, our disaster programs manager for Asia, the Middle East and Europe, is currently working in Padang, Indonesia. He writes from the local office of the Indonesian Red Cross, known as Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI).

For two weeks, I’ve been working in the earthquake zone in Padang, in order to manage relief the American Red Cross is bringing to this damaged city. The earthquake has impacted the lives of so many people - even the disaster responders! When I got here, a large building right next door to PMI’s office had to be torn down because of extensive damage. We had to evacuate out of fear that the building’s demolition would destroy our building as well.

A grant from the U.S. government has enabled us to bring relief to 5,000 families, and provide water to 10,000 people per day in areas of Padang where the water supply has been destroyed. Private donations have enabled us to bring relief items from a regional warehouse to help thousands more.

It’s been amazing to watch PMI’s volunteers, from Padang and around Indonesia, as they work long, difficult hours to bring relief to the victims. For example, I visited a temporary helicopter base set up in a school, where volunteers had been living in small tents for days on end, supporting PMI’s air operations to reach people in mountainous areas that had been completely cut off from roads. The helicopters flew PMI medical teams into remote areas to assist the injured, and also brought household kits and temporary shelter materials to people whose homes were destroyed by the quake or by massive landslides that followed.

To support PMI’s management of the helicopter operations, we sent an American Red Cross field coordinator to the air base. Despite the difficult conditions - intense tropical heat, hard work over long hours, and torrential rain - the crew at the air ops base were completely dedicated to their mission until the roads opened again.

Without a doubt, these hardworking volunteers are what make the Red Cross special. When we respond to a disaster anywhere in the world, we don’t need to send in large teams of people. In countries like Indonesia, the Red Cross is already there, made up of volunteers whose dedication and knowledge of their country are unmatched.

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The answer: less than $1. Through cost-effective vaccinations, the Measles Initiative has helped to save 3.6 million lives over the last decade. On this podcast episode, volunteer Sandy Tesch discusses her trip to The Gambia to observe a vaccination campaign. For more information on the Initiative, check out MeaslesInitiative.org.

Also: the Facebook Gift Store has added a virtual gift for 60 credits to vaccinate 5 children in the developing world from measles. Send it to your friends!

>> Listen Now

>> Episodes 1-12 of Cross the Globe

You can subscribe to this podcast in iTunes by going to your iTunes Store and searching for “Cross the Globe.”

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This Sunday, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will air a new episode featuring Red Cross CPR preparedness training. Country music celebrity Clint Black will be joining the Extreme Makeover team in building a new home for the Mattingly family, who are known for their willingness to help others in their community.

The Mattingly family share an inspirational story of how Melissa Mattingly was able to aid her husband at the scene of a car accident. As a trained EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), she was able to call upon her Red Cross training to give him care at the scene of the accident. Clint is expected to demonstrate the importance of CPR and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training during the episode. According to Clint,

I feel it is essential to be trained in first aid and CPR, including how to use an AED. I was pleased to volunteer for the ‘Extreme Makeover Home Edition’ episode and proud to support an organization that teaches these lifesaving skills.

Staff of the Big Rivers Chapter of the Red Cross in Owensboro, Ky., with Clint Black

CPR training is offered by Red Cross chapters - you can look up a course near you through our website. There are many options available, and anyone can take them! There is even a blended learning option that allows you to take an online course initially, and then go through a skill check in person with a Red Cross instructor.

Filed under: Preparedness | 2 Comments »

Halloween is coming, and once again, the Red Cross has some safety tips that we encourage everyone to keep in mind when going trick-or-treating!

This year, the seasonal flu and H1N1 have been major concerns across the board, so we also want to suggest some precautions. Think about these actions you can take:

• If your child is sick, keep them at home. This will be disappointing to your young one, but your neighbors and community are counting on you to hold the line on transmission of this virus.
• Remind kids to keep their hands away from their eyes, nose and mouth to keep germs away. Carry that hand sanitizer with you or have it near your candy dispensing area.
• If you are giving out candy, hand it out or scoop it. Instead of a bowl of candy, consider handing out small, individually wrapped bags of treats.

Is the flu a concern to you this year? If so, what other steps have you considered taking to avoid it? Please let us know by commenting here!

For more general Halloween tips, check out our handy flyer - complete with spooky rhymes. There is also a very cute recording of kids reciting these tips from our podcast.

If you’d like to print out this flyer, you can download a PDF here.

Happy Halloween from all of us here at the Red Cross!

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Welcome to the Weekly Worldwide Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It’s a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work…

[The place names link to maps so that you can get a quick idea of the region.]

INDIA: The heaviest rains in more than a century have inundated parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states in southern India. The Krishna River and its tributaries have flooded surrounding villages, killing 384 people, displacing 674,500 and affecting more than 4.1 million

The Indian Red Cross is responding, providing relief supplies and water sanitation. The American Red Cross is sending $180,000 of relief items.
YEMEN: Aid from the ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent has reached around 140,000 people over the past three months, but tens of thousands of others trapped in conflict areas or forced to flee must fend for themselves as winter approaches.

PAKISTAN: As thousands flee fighting in the south of Waziristan, the ICRC and Pakistan Red Crescent Society continue to help people displaced in the north of the country over the last six months.Photo gallery.

BURUNDI: A healthy albino baby boy was born last week in a police-protected shelter. A rare happy storyin the Ruyigi province where albino people have been the target of occult-based killings.

WORLDWIDE: For more worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent news, read the latest issue ofRed Cross Red Crescent Magazineonline.

GLOSSARY:
ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

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