Annette Rowland, Regional Director of Communications and Marketing, spoke at the May Chelsea Business Alliance meeting and gave an overview of the Red Cross’ impact and programs.
Since Alabama and Mississippi merged in 2020 to form one region, Rowland said it’s been beneficial. There are 2,100 volunteers between the states.
The Alabama-Mississippi Region is made up of 149 counties that are broken down into eight geographical Chapters – Central Alabama, Mid Alabama, North Alabama, South Alabama, West Alabama, Southwest Mississippi, Southeast Mississippi and North Mississippi.
“We have a lot of similar disasters,” Rowland said. “When a tornado affects Mississippi, it usually affects Alabama.”
Rowland shared stats on how the Red Cross impacts lives every day across the country:
- Assists over 24,000 people daily
- Helps those affected by a disaster 170 times a day
- Collects blood 12,000 times a day
- Reaches 650 youths daily through their preparedness program
- Provides services to military members 1,400 times a day
- Vaccinates children and adults 683 times a day
- Provides life saving training 13,000 times a day
- The Red Cross also collects 40% of the nation’s blood supply
“We’ve got about 2,900 volunteers who respond to home fires every day in Alabama and Mississippi,” she said. “From January through March, we have provided $2 million worth of financial assistance after natural disasters in Alabama and Mississippi.”
Rowland added that 2022 has been a busy weather year and the Red Cross used to work one or two major disasters per year; there are now three or four and the number continues to grow.
“Red Cross assistance is completely free and it’s because of the generosity of our donors that we are able to help people,” she said.
