LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Thank you to the Southern Maryland community who gave their time, money, and blood to our cause. It has helped provide lodging for over a hundred families of men, women, and children that would otherwise have nowhere to go after their home became unlivable due to fires. You also helped us serve meals and provide clothes to these victims and provide lifesaving training through our health & safety programs. You helped saved countless lives with the blood we collected and provided emergency communication to our men and woman around the world in our Armed Services. And, the list goes on!
To continue to provide vital services, programs and training, the Southern Maryland Chapter needs your continued support. Below you’ll find our wish list that Santa did not fill and we need for the
new year:
-- Volunteers to help with the design, planning, capital campaign, and construction of a new Chapter House;
-- Someone to paint our donated vehicles with the standard Red Cross red and
white colors;
-- A serviceable cargo van for disaster and Health & Safety programs;
-- Corporate/ organizational sponsors to underwrite the purchase of cold weather outerwear for our volunteers who brave the elements responding to disasters around the clock;
-- Volunteers to be trained to respond to disasters and teach first aid and CPR;
-- A serviceable, towable trailer (like a garden trailer) to be used by the Red Cross communicators to build a portable antenna tower transport that would be used to establish critical emergency communications in remote locations in the event of a major disasters;
-- Digital trunking public service scanners for the disaster operations center and each of the Southern Maryland RC regional offices;
-- Volunteers to support our life saving mission in Southern Maryland. To man our Emergency call center, teach community disaster education programs in our community, to drive our emergency vehicles, and many other opportunities; and
-- Cash donations to supplement the Local Operations & Emergency Response Fund. These funds maintains our ability to help victims of disaster, whether it is food, clothing, or shelter and keep our local offices open.
The Southern Maryland Chapter American Red Cross strives to be there when you need us. On behalf of the thousands of people we’ve touched locally; the employees, volunteers, and volunteer
board of directors of the Southern Maryland Chapter wish you the best new year ever.
If you would like more information on volunteering or to address any of our wish list items needs, please contact the chapter at 1-888-276-2767.
Mike Zabko
Chief Executive Officer
Southern Maryland Red Cross
P.O. Box 507, La Plata, MD 20646
http://SouthernMaryland.RedCross.org/