National Volunteer Week: A Big Thank You to Our Volunteers

April 28, 2018.
Wilmington, North Carolina.
Smoke alarm installations at the Sound the Alarm event.
Pictured: American Red Cross volunteers Carol Schwarzenbach and Jonathan Fehr

American Red Cross volunteers Carol Schwarzenbach, Jonathan Fehr and their team go door-to-door in Wilmington, North Carolina during an event called "Sound the Alarm." Teams of Red Cross volunteers fan out into local neighborhoods across the country, offering to install free smoke alarms in any home that needs them. As part of the installation they also teach families about fire prevention, and help them design escape plans, so they can practice how to get out of the building quickly in the event of a fire.

Photo by Adam Jennings for the American Red Cross.

April 08, 2019

It’s National Volunteer Week, and the American Red Cross honors our hundreds of thousands of volunteers who make it possible to fulfill our lifesaving mission of helping people in need.

More than 90 percent of the Red Cross workforce is volunteers, who respond to home fires and other disasters, volunteer at veterans’ hospitals, staff blood drives, teach people lifesaving skills such as first aid and CPR, reconnect loved ones separated by international conflict, and so much more.

Each year, these volunteer heroes—nearly 372,000 individuals—enable the Red Cross to:

Respond to an average of more than 62,000 disasters across the country.
Train more than 6.2 million people in first aid, water safety and other skills that help save lives.
Provide more than 422,000 services to military members, veterans and their families.
Collect more than 4.7 million blood donations and more than 900,000 platelet donations from nearly 2.7 million volunteer donors.
Help reconnect more than 8,000 families separated by war, disaster or migration around the world.

BECOME A VOLUNTEER Learn more about volunteer opportunities by contacting your local Red Cross chapter or visiting redcross.org. To donate blood or platelets, eligible individuals can make an appointment by using the free Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS.

HELP SOUND THE ALARM TO #ENDHOMEFIRES This month, you can join a special volunteer opportunity to help install 100,000 free smoke alarms and raise lifesaving funds during our national two-week push of Sound the Alarm home fire safety and smoke alarm installation events.

Visit SoundTheAlarm.org to find an event in your area. We encourage you to invite family and friends to join you for an event and donate to save lives.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.