Proud of community
Mahalo to Mayor Harry Kim for once again declaring March Red Cross Month and allowing us to raise the Red Cross flag over our county buildings in Hilo and Kona.
March is Red Cross Month, and the American Red Cross asks everyone to be a hero in their community by becoming a volunteer, learning life-saving skills, giving blood or donating to #help1family on Red Cross Giving Day, March 27.
The need to help people is constant, and the past year of busy disaster activity was no exception.
For 324 consecutive days, more than 43,000 people relied on the Red Cross for emergency shelter following events such as record wildfires, hurricanes, floods and large apartment fires.
From April 2018 to February of this year, more than 11,500 Red Cross volunteers left the comfort of their own homes to provide comfort, care and a safe place to sleep for tens of thousands affected by disasters.
During Red Cross Month, we honor the volunteer heroes who help families overcome life’s emergencies every day. These champions are our neighbors — ordinary people who make an extraordinary difference to ease the suffering of others, whether it’s saving a person’s life with CPR, donating blood for a hospital patient with life-threatening conditions or comforting a family overwhelmed by a home fire or other crisis.
We ask you to consider joining. The Red Cross is not the representative of a small group of people in a community, it is the representative of the entire population, and that is what keeps us alive.
And, wow! What a great number of you heroes stepped up to help this year after earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and lava. Mahalo to all of you. I’m proud to be part of this community!
So many people came in to help, donate, entertain and so much more. If I tried to list all of you, it would take a whole page, and this paper couldn’t print it. Clean clothes and towels and food mean a lot when you’re living in a shelter and still have to go to work and care for your family.
Mahalo to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald for so generously offering storage space.
The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org.
Donna Goldsworthy
Hawaii Red Cross volunteer, Hilo