National Volunteer Week is April 23 - 29 and the American Red Cross, Western and Central New York Region, is honoring its volunteers who give their time to help people in need. 

Nearly 330,000 volunteers serve the organization, helping staff blood drives, volunteering at veterans hospitals, teaching people lifesaving skills such as First Aid and CPR, responding to home fires in the middle of the night and so much more. Here in the Western and Central New York, 3,372 volunteers worked 170,629 hours to help this community. 

“We want to take this time during Volunteer Week to thank our volunteers for their service,” said Rosie Taravella, Western and Central New York Regional CEO. “They help us fulfill our lifesaving mission every day, and we are overwhelmed with gratitude for their service.” 

Last year, Western and Central New York Red Cross volunteers provided food, shelter, comfort and hope to 1,488 local families who faced emergency situations. They installed 4,461 free smoke alarms in homes that needed them, trained 69,562 people in lifesaving skills, provided 1,419 services to military members, veterans and their families, and helped collect 156,185 lifesaving blood donations. 

The Red Cross invites the public to be a part of the lifesaving work it does and to sign up to volunteer and donate blood. People can go to redcross.org to learn more about volunteer opportunities and how to submit a volunteer application. To schedule an appointment to donate blood, people should visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS. 

The Red Cross Home Fire Campaign offers another way to volunteer and help reduce the number of home fire injuries and deaths locally. Volunteers are going door-to-door in neighborhoods at high risk for fires to install smoke alarms and teach people about home fire safety. Since the Home Fire Campaign started, it has been credited with saving 215 lives. Volunteers have already installed more than 702,000 of smoke alarms in more than 9,100 cities and towns across the United States.