American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties’ Month in Review – November 2018

SAN DIEGO – December 3, 2018 – The American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties operates with the mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. In November 2018, the following key programs and services were provided throughout the region, which covers all of San Diego and Imperial Counties as well as American Samoa:

Disaster Services:

• Responded to 22 incidents, including 15 home fires
• Served 43 families including 120 individuals
• National Disaster Responses – more than 100 local Red Cross disaster workers have assisted with disaster responses this fall, including Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Michael and Typhoon Yutu. When the Camp, Hill and Woolsey Fires started in mid-November, the American Red Cross was there. More than 30 San Diego and Imperial County-based Red Cross disaster workers responded to assist with sheltering, operations and more. Eight San Diego disaster responders remain deployed to the Camp Fire response and additional deployments may occur.

Service to the Armed Forces:

• Provided 1,354 services to 1,150 military members, veterans and spouses.
• Conducted 18 outreach and pre-deployment briefings, fulfilling 100 percent of command requests.
• Service to the Armed Forces caseworkers conducted family follow up on 170 emergency cases for the San Diego Region and provided $2,176.98 in emergency financial assistance to military and veteran families.

Volunteers:

• Local Red Cross services were supported by volunteers who spent a total of 10,037 hours in November to aid the Red Cross mission.
• The November 2018 Volunteer of the Month is Sandy Meditz. Sandy volunteers as Deployment Regional Lead. Working long hours, evenings and weekends, she was able to deploy more than 90 San Diego Region volunteers to support National Hurricane and Typhoon Disaster Relief Operations. Each of these deployments involves numerous telephone calls, position searches, individual briefings and financial transactions. Sandy is extremely thorough and detail-oriented. She is great at communicating with various departments so everyone is on the same page. She is always willing to help and won't stop until a solution is found.

Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Program:

• A total of 22,177 women, infants, and children received nutrition counseling and support in November 2018.
• For more than 40 years, the local Red Cross has administered the WIC program in San Diego County. WIC is a supplemental nutrition assistance program that provides families in the most vulnerable communities with access to nutrition education, breastfeeding support, community resources, and groceries.

Upcoming Events:

Sound the Alarm free smoke alarm installations

• Santee – Tuesday, December 4: Red Cross volunteers and partners install free smoke alarms to save lives. Find more information at soundthealarm.org/sandiego.

For more information about the American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties, please visit redcross.org/sandiego.

About the American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties
The American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties is the most trusted community service organization in education, preparation and response to natural disasters and human emergencies. With the public’s ongoing support, we provide lifesaving preparedness training; disaster relief services; services to deployed military personnel and their families, and nutritional counseling through our Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Through Prepare San Diego, a regional resiliency initiative, the Red Cross brings together key community and business leaders from the region to create a sustainable network that encourages preparedness, carries out response and recovery plans, and strives for resiliency in the face of disaster, meeting all aspects of the disaster lifecycle.  The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org/sandiego or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.          

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