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Vernon County Red Cross carries on tradition of help
The Vernon County Chapter of the American Red Cross offers many services to the Nevada community and Vernon County as a whole.
The local blood drive, which will be held this year May 4-5, is an annual event that furnishes blood for local and national use.
"The blood has a 45-day shelf life," explained Vonda Jackson, chairman of the Board of Directors for the Vernon County Red Cross Chapter, "but it never stays on a shelf that long before it is needed."
Jackson has been organizing the blood drive since 1979.
Peggy Tedlock, Chapter Manager explained how the Red Cross is organized. "First is the local chapters in communities, then we're under a service area which is located in Des Moines Iowa. We've been under them for two years. They report to the National office."
Vernon County Red Cross is funded by donations. "Sixty percent of our money is from the United Way," Tedlock said, "and the rest is raised by local donations and fund-raisers."
"We are the funnel cake queens," added Jackson with a laugh, referring to the organization's annual Bushwhacker Days food booth.
Tedlock continued, "Most local dollars stay local, but we have to pay an assessment to the National office to be able to use the Red Cross materials."
Jackson said, "We usually break even between the money we send to the national office and what they give back to us when we have a large need. Between the floods in the '80s, tornadoes and the microburst, we got those funds back."
The national office gets involved based on the percentage of the population that is affected by a local disaster.
"A few years ago there was a fire that affected 11 families," Tedlock explained. "The national office came in then to help with that. It depends on the extent of damage as well. We recently had the tornado damage and they stepped in there."
The Red Cross usually finds out about local problems through the various Vernon County emergency responders including police, the sheriff, fire departments, ambulance, search and rescue and other emergency responder departments.
"Local emergency personnel and responders call us and say we are needed. We go to the scene and see what we can do. We help the victims and the rescuers," Tedlock explained.
Many associate the Red Cross with major disasters and although they are always there for those large scale situations, they are also on hand for individual disasters.
Most often in Vernon County, they are called on to help with families who have lost their homes due to fire.
Tedlock said, "Emergency responders contact us if families need a place to go. We average 15 single family fires a year across the county. We offer clothing, food, shelter, medical needs, personal care items, etc. We work with a lot of the other local agencies to help people out."
When disaster hits, the Red Cross responds immediately. After the recent tornadoes hit the county, Red Cross volunteers were there to help.
Tedlock said, "We went out the first day, and furnished food for everyone and accessed what help was needed."
She added that Vernon County was unique in that most people have family and friends who assist when a disaster hits their neighbors. "We contacted every family involved and each of them had family and friends to take them in."
The Red Cross also helps individuals and groups prepare for emergencies through classes on CPR, First Aid, Emergency Preparedness and Lifeguard training.
"We do charge small fees for these classes, although the instructors are never paid, they are volunteers," Tedlock said. "We have to pay for the materials used to teach the classes."
She added, "Last year we had 169 health and safety classes. We distributed 1,099 certificates for CPR, First Aid, AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) and lifeguard classes utilizing 49 authorized instructors."
Working through local fire departments, the Vernon County Red Cross also distributes smoke detectors as needed.
The Red Cross is operated solely by donations, and with all the local and national disasters that devastated the country last year, additional resources are needed.
"We always need money donations," Jackson said. She explained that although people often want to donate food and clothing, the Red Cross didn't have the personnel nor resources to utilize those types of donations.
"There are local entities that take clothing and food donations that people should give to," Tedlock explained. "We work with these entities as needed."
Jackson added, "We try very hard to use our money wisely. A very small percentage of our money goes to administration."
Another way anyone can help is through volunteering. Volunteers work in many different ways and are divided into groups. The activities vary from providing cakes and cupcakes for the local nursing homes, helping with the bloodmobiles and other local services such as collecting Christmas gifts and school supplies, to assisting at national disasters such as Katrina and the 9/11 bombing.
Vernon County has specially trained volunteers who have assisted in many such national disasters.
"Missouri was one of the first states to work in conjunction with the Red Cross to educate their mental health nurses so they could go into disaster areas and provide mental health assistance to the victims," Jackson said.
Another service traditionally offered by the Red Cross is Armed Forces Emergency Service to act as a contact link between families and the military.
"We might get a call from the military asking us to verify that a family member of a service man or woman has died," Tedlock explained. "We have to verify the information with the local funeral homes and then report back to the military. It works the other way around as well. If a family has had a member pass away, we get all the verification organized and contact the military to let the service man or woman know."
"Our Red Cross is on call 24/7, 365 days a year," Tedlock said. "We want to be where we are needed. It's nice to have a roster of people to call on for help when we need them."
"We have a lot of dedicated volunteers," Jackson added, "We couldn't do the services we do without them."
The Vernon County Red Cross office is located in room 203 of the Team Bank Building in Nevada where it will remain. For more information call (417) 667-5563.