VAN WERT – Derek Stemen, executive director of the local Red Cross,
announced on Thursday that the Van Wert County Red Cross is celebrating
its 100th anniversary of service to the local county. Red Cross was
established in this county on June 8, 1917. Stemen anticipates an
announcement soon as to the date and nature of that celebration.
In
the meantime, the Red Cross is joining other sister organizations
across the country in recognizing the tradition of March as Red Cross
month.
Stemen, who has served in the local office for the past
year and a half, is part of a new organization locally which allows the
Red Cross in 10 counties to share volunteers and services in the event
of an extreme emergency. Stemen noted that, in actuality, he is in
charge of a 10-county block of Red Cross activity referred to as the
West Central Ohio chapter of the Red Cross.
“We have 700 people in
10 counties that serve as volunteers. Of those, 350 are actually
registered volunteers,” said Stemen. “We have 80 volunteers in Van Wert
County.”
“We re-organized to make better use of the donor’s dollar
and to make a bigger impact in our community service,” continued
Stemen.
Stemen said that in addition to serving in times of
disaster, the local group emphasizes passing out smoke alarms, the
disaster pillowcase project and a preparedness campaign.
The
Pillowcase Project originated in New Orleans following Hurricane
Katrina. Children living in makeshift communities around New Orleans
decorated pillows as emergency supply kits.
The Pillowcase Project
quickly became a preparedness education program for elementary school
students and was quickly adapted by other Red Crosses across the nation
with strong success.
In early 2013, the Red Cross received a grant
from Disney to design and develop a multi-year effort that would build
on this success by creating a standardized, state-of-the-art
preparedness education program. Now entering the third year of this
pilot, The Pillowcase Project is being offered by every Red Cross region
across the country.
“Our 10 counties have a focus on each local
community and county,” said Stemen. “We have good leadership and a
disaster action plan for Van Wert County. We really function well as a
team. If we need more resources, we reach out to each other for
volunteers and resources from each other as a team.
“In the old
days we had just one county. Now days we have local relationships with
other counties that we can call on when needed,” continued Stemen.
Stemen
noted several specific areas of specialization including Nancy Friemoth
as blood drive coordinator, Mark Klausing as disaster action team
leader, Sandy Lane as community volunteer leader and Carol Hennis, who
is in charge of the hospital program.
“Red Cross Month is all about local heroes who make an impact on the community. It’s an exciting time of the year,” Stemen said.