On Veterans Day, and every day, the American Red Cross supports those who serve. In fact, the Red Cross has deployed alongside the military in every U.S. conflict since the Spanish-American War. Yet despite this, the general public tends to be less aware of our Service to the Armed Forces activities than other lines of service like disaster relief and blood collection.
To help raise awareness and to honor the service and sacrifice of active military personnel, veterans and their families, Red Cross volunteers and staff joined more than 150 organizations for the 7th Annual Philadelphia Veterans Parade and Festival last weekend in advance of Veterans Day.
“Locally, it’s really important for us to connect with veterans’ organizations throughout our region so that we can make better informed referrals,” said Jaime Boris, Red Cross Southeastern PA regional program manager for Service to the Armed Forces and International Services. “Even the day after the parade, we were able to make a referral to an agency we met at the festival.”
Around 20 Red Crossers – including U.S. Navy veterans James Jones and Gene Maxey – walked the mile-long parade route from Juniper and Market streets to Independence Mall East, which was the location of the festival. There, Red Cross volunteers staffed a table with veterans resource information for veterans and games for kids.
“The entire event provided a great opportunity to our volunteers to see veterans and families in action, especially before the start of the parade when they were able to get to know the history and work of the units and organizations lining up around us,” said Boris.
Last year in Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Red Cross delivered 3,158 services – part of the nearly half million services provided across the county – to help military members, veterans and their families prepare for, cope with, and respond to the challenges of military service.
To learn more about how the Red Cross supports service members, veterans and their families, visit the Support Military Families section of our website.