We Salute Our Heroes

It’s Red Cross Month and we salute everyday heroes who make a difference by donating blood or platelets to support hospital patients; volunteering to help a family devastated by disaster; taking a first aid or CPR class to help in an emergency situation or providing comfort to a member of the military, a veteran or their family. You can find out more about how to be a Red Cross hero here.

Red Cross Month began 76 years ago when President Franklin D. Roosevelt first proclaimed March as Red Cross Month to raise awareness of the organization and its critical humanitarian mission.

WHAT WE DO The Red Cross is powered by volunteers who comprise 90 percent of the Red Cross workforce across the country. In 2018, the Red Cross mobilized more than 11,000 disaster workers who, with the help of partners, helped serve 8.2 million meals and snacks, distribute 2.2 million relief items and provide more than 290,000 overnight shelter stays for people impacted by disaster

On average, each year the Red Cross:

• Responds to nearly 62,000 disasters across the country
• Trains and provides information to as many as 6.2 million people in first aid, water safety and other skills
• Collects more than 4.7 million units of blood from nearly 2.7 million volunteer donors to meet the needs of patients at hospitals and transfusion centers across the country
• Provides more than 422,000 support services to military members, veterans and their families
• Helps nearly 174 million people outside the U.S. through disaster management and disease prevention efforts.

GIVING DAY You can also #help1family on Giving Day - Wednesday, March 27 - by making a financial donation at redcross.org/givingday or texting REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10. Donations can help provide urgent relief such as food, blankets and other essentials to people who need it most.

Every eight minutes, the Red Cross meets a family that may have lost everything to a home fire or other disaster somewhere across the country. Your support on Giving Day will help in those minutes, hours and days after a disaster.

• A donation of $88.50* will provide a family of three with urgent relief, food, shelter, and other essentials for one day.
• A donation of $60* can help provide six meals for disaster victims.
• A donation of $30* can ensure that children and families stay warm and can get a good night’s sleep with six comforting blankets.

*These dollar handles are based on FY18 data