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The American Red Cross Rhode Island Chapter’s campaign to recruit new shelter volunteers, “Give Us Five,” has broken its previous record—more than doubling last year’s effort—with 105 people signed up for training to begin this Saturday, March 6.
“We had so many people calling us after the Haiti earthquake, asking how they could get involved, what they could do to help,” said Bruce Rutter, CEO of the local chapter. “We decided the time was ripe to re-launch the campaign.”
Last year, the local Red Cross teamed up with Hot 106 to create the first “Give Us Five” effort, and was amazed by the turnout then. This year’s campaign, funded by the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, the Providence Emergency Management agency and the local Red Cross, ran on three Citadel Radio stations. “It was a little slow to start, but for the last two weeks the phone has literally been ringing off the hook, “ said Red Cross volunteer Michelle Bourque, who has been handling most of the calls. “I think Haiti got people thinking,” she said, “things could happen here, too.”
As part of the “Give Us Five” effort, new volunteers have committed to attending five training sessions on Saturdays in March and April. The first session will be held at the Providence Public Safety Complex this Saturday, from 10AM-12PM. The final session, a disaster simulation, will occur on April 10. Peter Gaynor, Director of Providence EMA, is planning to open a number of shelters around the city, giving smaller groups of trainees a chance to get first hand experience. Shelter neighbors will be invited to participate as disaster “victims,” giving the community an opportunity to see how their local shelter will operate during a hurricane, blizzard or ice storm.
Since 911 and Hurricane Katrina, Red Cross chapters around the country have been scrambling to improve their emergency response capacity. “We’ve made a lot of progress here in Rhode Island,” said local Red Cross Board Chair Kevin Smith. “We’ve doubled our capacity in five years, but we think we can go a lot further. Because other states haven’t worked as hard on this as us, it’s one area where we think little Rhody could shine. Our goal is to be the safest state in the Union by 2015.”
Those interested in becoming Red Cross Emergency Volunteers should click here or call 401-831-7700.
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