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’Tis the season for giving! Whether you are having a holiday dinner at your home or braving the crowds to purchase gifts for the grandkids, we find ourselves in that time of year when charitable sentiment swells. This is also the time to give thanks.

Thank you Southern Maryland community members, who gave their time, money, and blood to our cause. It has helped provide lodging for over a hundred families of men, women, and children that would otherwise have no where to go after their home became unlivable due to fires. It also helped us serve meals and provide clothes to these innocent victims. It provided lifesaving training through our Health & Safety programs. It saved countless lives with the blood we collected. It provided emergency communication to our men and woman around the world in our Armed Services. And, the list goes on!

To continue to provide vital services, programs and training, the Southern Maryland Chapter needs your continued support. Below you’ll find our wish list to Santa for the holidays and the upcoming year:

• A donation of land centrally located in Southern Maryland to build a new Red Cross Chapter house on so that we may continue to provide adequate services for our growing area.
• Volunteers to help with the design, planning, capital campaign, and construction of a new Chapter House.
• A serviceable cargo van for disaster and Health & Safety programs.
• Corporate/ organizational sponsors to underwrite the purchase of cold weather outerwear for our volunteers who brave the elements responding to disasters around the clock.
• Volunteers to be trained to respond to disasters and teach first aid and CPR.
• Three portable TV’s for our disaster operations center.
• A serviceable, towable trailer (like a garden trailer) to be used by the Red Cross communicators to build a portable antenna tower transport that would be used to establish critical emergency communications in remote locations in the event of a major disasters.
• Someone to convert a generator from natural gas to propane and connect it to provide backup power to critical systems at the headquarters facility.
• Portable electric generators to provide backup power to sites of disasters to provide immediate assistance to victims.
• Digital trunking public service scanners for the disaster operations center and each of the Southern Maryland RC regional offices.
• Pagers and associated paging service to be used by disaster service volunteer coordinators in each of the three Southern Maryland regions to receive immediate alerts from each of the county emergency operations centers of a need for Red Cross services.
• Volunteers to support our life saving mission in Southern Maryland. To man our Emergency call center, teach community disaster education programs in our community, to drive our emergency vehicles, and many other opportunities.
• Cash donations to supplement the Local Emergency Response Fund. This fund maintains our ability to help victims of disaster, whether it is food, clothing, or shelter.

The Southern Maryland Chapter American Red Cross strives to be there when you need us. It is in our mission as: “... a community organization led by volunteers and guided by its congressional charter and the fundamental principles of the international Red Cross Movement, will provide relief to victims of disaster and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.” On behalf of the thousands of people we’ve touched locally, the employees, volunteers, and volunteer Board of Directors of the Southern Maryland Chapter, have a great Holiday Season and an even better New Year.

If you would like more information on volunteering or to address any of our wish list items to Santa, please contact the chapter at 888 276 2767

Wishing all a Red Cross Ready year.

Mike Zabko

This list will be updated as items are needed. Please check back for these updates.

How you can help:

When disaster strikes, people need necessities, like shelter, food and clothing. The American Red Cross is on call 24 hours a day. Ready to help in times of need or in the case of an emergency.

Your support will enable us to continue giving hope and to provide the services needed by our community. Give generously through one of the following methods:

• Donate by Mail:
  Southern Maryland Chapter, American Red Cross
  P.O. Box 507
  La Plata, MD 20646
  (Please indicate on check, if for your chapter general fund account or disaster account.)
• Donate by Phone:
  Give us a call at 301-934-2066 or call toll free at 1-888-276-2767
• Donate in Person:
  Southern Maryland Chapter Headquarters
  9255 W & W Industrial Road, La Plata, MD
  (same road as Mr. Tire, Loacted north of La Plata Wal-Mart or Food Lion) MAP
• Donate Online:
  You can make a secure donation Online here. or through our National Web Site. Click on DONATE ONLINE and then please select "Your Local Red Cross Chapter" option for making a gift to the Southern Maryland Chapter.

Honor the memory of a loved one with a Memorial Gift

Remember someone special with a Tribute Gift

Continue your legacy of caring, put the Red Cross in your will

Or, donate directly to the American Red Cross.

View this slide show to learn more.

If you are an individual who would like to make a donation of food or clothing, please understand, though your generosity is sincerely appreciated, the American Red Cross cannot accept this type of donation.

Unsolicited, spontaneous donations of goods and services from individuals and community groups, though well intentioned, have hidden costs and pose a number of complications for relief efforts. For these reasons, the Red Cross is unable to accept any large collections of items, such as used clothing, hygiene items, furniture, toys, blankets, and canned goods. Nor are we able to accept small, individual donations of these items.

Why does the Red Cross discourage donations of collected goods and individual items for disaster relief?

• Collections of items require valuable and scarce resources such as time, money, and personnel to sort, clean, and distribute them, which come at the expense of the emergency activities relief workers are attempting to perform. The Red Cross has neither the resources, nor the logistical set-up, to properly handle these types of donations, and therefore cannot accept them.
• In addition, because we have no way of knowing what spontaneous individual donations or unsolicited collections of items will consist of, we cannot ensure there will be enough of a particular item to distribute it equitably, or if the donated products will even be appropriate for the relief effort.
• Shipping donated goods is also costly and particularly difficult in the aftermath of a disaster, as inroads into disaster sites are often damaged or impassable, and easily clogged with shipments of non-priority items. The Red Cross makes every attempt to procure items locally to save money by minimizing transportation and storage costs. Local procurement also ensures that the items distributed to disaster victims are appropriate for their culture and diet.
• Where can donations of collected goods and individual items be most effective?
• Individual donations of goods and collections of items are put to their best possible use, and have the greatest impact economically, when they are donated to local charitable organizations within your own community. Donating locally eliminates transportation costs and ensures disaster workers are not overwhelmed with sorting unsolicited donations and are free to perform priority relief activities. Because these local agencies are not operating in the crisis environment that characterizes disaster relief, the charity will have the time sort, clean, and repair goods and identify how and where they can be most beneficial.

What is the best way I can support the relief efforts?

Monetary financial contributions allow us to support the greatest needs in the most efficient manner. Cash can be used to purchase items such as tents and blankets in the region, and eliminate the added costs involved in transporting goods. Cash also allows the purchase of culturally appropriate items in the country, and stimulates the devastated economy.

Guidelines for Effective Giving in Support of Disaster Relief

Before beginning any sort of collection drive, it is important to first call a charitable agency and confirm that there is a need for the donation and that they are able to accept it. Several organizations active in disaster relief have published guidelines that offer practical advice on steps that should be taken prior to starting a collection drive or purchasing items to donate to disaster relief.

When Disaster Strikes...

Donations Are Needed

http://www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm

Guide to Appropriate Giving

http://www.interaction.org/disaster/guide_giving.html

Financial Donations

You can help those affected by the floods and countless other crises around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance, and other support to those in need. Donate online or call toll free 1-800-HELP NOW (1-800-257-7575 for Spanish speakers) or you can mail in your gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.

URGENT NEED
American Red Cross, Greater Chesapeake & Potomac Region Urges Type "O" and Type "B" Donors to Call
1-800-GIVE-LIFE
Specific Blood Types Needed to Meet Patients Needs

National Disaster Relief
Click here to donate now to the National Disaster Relief Fund
TOGETHER WE CAN SAVE A LIFE