March is Red Cross Month, a nationwide celebration to honor the people who deliver support when help can’t wait. Many people know that the Red Cross shelters, feeds anf provides comfort after disasters. Others know that the Red Cross helps supply about 40% of the nation's blood supply.

But the Red Cross mission extends to many different types of service, all with one goal: Preventing and alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

Preparing for and Responding to Disasters

The Red Cross responds to about 65,000 disasters every year, a nearly nonstop cadence regardless of season or location. Large disasters like hurricanes, floods and wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, requiring our volunteers to mobilize for nearly twice as many major events than a decade ago.

In the past year alone, Wyoming Red Cross volunteers have responded to wildfires in the northern part of the state, as well as disasters across the U.S., from the Palisades Fire in California to hurricanes and winter storms in the South.

Still, the most frequent disasters the Red Cross responds to are the ones often closest to the places we like and work: home fires. In Colorado and Wyoming, Red Cross volunteers responded to 440 home fires in 2025, helping 1,635 people during what may be one of their most vulnerable moments.

Fifty-six of those responses were in Wyoming, from larger cities like Cheyenne to communities like Jackson, Rock Springs, Thermopolis, Lander, Gillette and Sundance. Wherever the need is, Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteers like Carol Harper stand ready to respond.

The Red Cross also aims to help stop fires before they start through its Home Fire Campaign and Sound the Alarm events, making smoke and carbon monoxide alarms available for free to those in need. Throughout the Cowboy State, from Cheyenne to Riverton and Sheridan to Casper, Red Cross Sound the Alarm events help make communities of all sizes safer. Nationally, the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign has helped save 2,552 lives since 2014.

In Wyoming, Red Cross volunteers installed 431 smoke alarms in 2025 alone, making 122 homes and 208 people safer from the dangers of fire. More than 2,700 students were also trained to be disaster-ready in 2025 through 27 Prepare with Pedro presentations delivered across the state.

Serving Those Who Serve the Nation

For over a century, our congressional charter has entrusted the Red Cross with unique access and authority, empowering us to serve members of the U.S. Armed Forces in ways no other organization can. The Red Cross does this through supporting active-duty service members and their families at military installations and military treatment facilities in the U.S. and overseas.

One way in which the Red Cross provides this support is through providing real-time information and verified messages to service members and their military commands, as well as connecting families to additional resources and financial assistance in times of hardship.

We also reach newly deployed service members through Hero Care Network support, health and wellness programs and Red Cross training classes.

Keeping Communities Knowledgeable

For more than 100 years, the Red Cross has been a national leader in first aid education, training more than three million people per year in first aid, CPR and AED skills to help save lives in emergencies. In Colorado and Wyoming, 71,357 people were trained in lifesaving skills last year.

Red Cross training is more than just learning first aid, CPR and AED skills, however. From pet first aid to babysitting and child care trainings and water safety classes, the Red Cross helps equips people and organizations with the skills they need in an emergency.

Helping Wherever the Need is Greatest

As part of the world’s largest humanitarian network, the Red Cross helps people around the world respond to disasters and helping communities prepare for crises. Nearly 1 in 65 people are helped by volunteers from national Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations each year.

Red Cross and Red Crescent teams help families separated by international crises through its Restoring Family Links program, with volunteers working around the world to locate missing loved ones and re-establish contact. From refugee mothers reuniting with long-lost children to bringing together siblings separated by conflict, the Red Cross makes a compassionate difference worldwide.

Finally, the Red Cross helps the public better understand international humanitarian law and how it affects them through programs highlighting the rules of war and importance of reducing human suffering.

Regardless of where, whatever the need, the Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming is there to make sure communities can prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies, thanks to the power of its volunteers and donors.