Facts
Your Local Red Cross: Did you know?
- Your local Red Cross does not receive direct funding from the National Red Cross or the government. It is supported by many people like you throughout our community.
- As many as 40 percent of small businesses do not reopen after a major disaster like a flood or a tornado. With a Business Continuity Plan (Your Red Cross Can help you with this!) you can minimize the damage and avoid the scary statistic.
- One in ten people who enter the hospital will require blood for surgery. Most often, the need for blood is emergency driven or unplanned.
- Only CPR and an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) can keep someone alive during the critical first 10 minutes after a cardiac incident. The average time until EMTs can directly assist someone in cardiac arrest can vary from 7 minutes – 23 minutes in our county.
- AEDs aren’t that expensive anymore! For around $1,500 you can have one. Saving a Life: Priceless!
- More than once a week in Washtenaw County, a family experiences devastating losses due to home fire. The firemen deal with the fire. The Red Cross assists the family with the emergency replacement of clothes, food, shelter, and other essentials…all delivered within an hour of the incident—day or night—by a caring, reassuring, and committed volunteer.
- There is no substitute for blood. Every pint has the potential to save 3 lives.
- Every year, your Red Cross teaches CPR to over 62,000 people in the community. We have the best EMTs and Hospitals in the country. Our per capita trained is the highest in the nation: if a critically dangerous cardiac incident were to happen to you or your family in this county, you are in the best place to be.
- Only the Red Cross is mandated by Congress to serve as the communication liaison between a soldier’s family and the military command. Last year your Red Cross will handle 1,300 phone calls from area military families that needed to get an emergency message to their loved one serving in the armed forces. Calls come in 365/24/7 and receive the relentless dedication of our volunteers.
- Your Red Cross has the highest Volunteer to Paid Staff ratios of any agency in the county: 50 to 1.
- Your Red Cross chapter trains local volunteers to be deployed to help those affected by disasters throughout the world.
- Your volunteer Red Cross First Aid Support Team makes services available to over 3 Million people attending many events here in the county – from UM Football to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs.
- The National Safety Council reports that each year over 3,000 people’s lives are claimed due to drowning—most of the victims are children under 4. Learning to Swim and following water safety tips are the best way to keep your loved ones safe around the water. Each year your Red Cross teaches free water safety classes.
