9-2-08  

The American Red Cross of Santa Monica has delpoyed over a dozen volunteers to the disaster stricken gulf coast in the aftermath of hurricanes Gustav, Hannah and Ike, doing relief work for evacuees from New Orleans to Texas.
 
Tthree of those Red Cross volunteers are Cory Russell, who is one of our AmeriCorps volunteers. Cory is back at the chapter for a second year.. Cory flew out Friday and has just been re-assigned as a damage assessment specialist. He started out as a shelter manager of an evacuee shelter in Franklinton, LA. about seventy miles north of New Orleans in Northeast Louisiana.  Cory's job will be to assess water and wind damage and report back to the Red Cross who will use the information to ascertain needs and services to local communities.
 
Janet Chang is our new AmeriCorps volunteer having just come on board last week. She is  also is working at the staging area in Dallas, Texas. The third volunteer form the chapter is Heather Plylte who also flew into Dallas. She is awaiting reassignment, most likely to a location in Louisiana because the local authorities are asking evacuees to stay put until the weekend.
 
Russell, Chang and Plylte were deployed ahead of the disaster to help set up shelters and make other arrangements for emergency needs. All three volunteers went out on a moment's notice last Friday as the first pre deployment call for experienced shelter management and disaster persons came in late Thursday.
 
In the aftermath of the hurricanes Red cross has already provided shelter stay to over 300,000 and meals for hundreds of thousands of others. Over 20,000 volunteers have been sent to the disaster area from around the country to assits with relief efforts. The local chapter has been training volunteers who are iinterested in going to the area on diaster assignement.

More recently the National Red Cross launched a $100 million dollar campaign to pay for the relierf work.

For more information on how you can help as a volunteer or to support out relief campaign Call us at 310-394-3773 du ring business hours for information and  to register for these courses.
 
If you wish to designate your donation to the Hurricane Relief effort please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-RED CROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Hurricane Relief fund can also be sent to the Santa Monica Red Cross chapter, 1450 11th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401 or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting  or www.redcrossofsantamonica.org or www.redcross.org.

The American Red Cross of Santa Monica is a publicly supported, 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that provides health and safety education, youth services, CPR and first aid training, disaster awareness and disaster relief efforts.  For additional information or to inquire about disaster training, programs or assistance, call 310-394-3773 or go online at www.redcrossofsantamonica.org.