Letter from the 2003-04 Chapter Chair Charles Seifert

     The Faulkner County Chapter of the American Red Cross had a wonderful year because of the dedicated people who volunteer for the chapter.  This year was marked by quite a large number of courses offered by the chapter, by an unusually large number of Arkansas servicemen being deployed to the middle east, by an unusual local disaster known as the Detco Fire, and by what may be the most successful fund raising campaign this chapter has ever known.    

    We recruited Senator Gilbert Baker, a long-time friend and supporter of the Faulkner County Chapter, to lead our Heroes Campaign.  Senator Baker recruited some co-captains to assist him and who, in turn, recruited approximately thirty other Heroes in our community.  They, together with instructors, DAT members, cookie bakers and board members were able to raise more than $20,000 (approximately 15% of our annual budget) to supplement the revenue side ledger.  Of course, we are a United Way agency and we appreciate the fact that the United Way provides with about 36% of the Chapter budget.

DAT members should be congratulated for their performance in response to the Detco Fire.  A shelter housed displaced residents from a neighborhood contiguous to the Detco plant for four nights.  Ms. Sherry Proctor led her disaster action team volunteers admirably as they staffed the shelter and provided canteen services for firefighters and police who worked the fire.  I am particularly proud of the performance of our DAT during that trying week because while the chapter provided those services with assistance from food vendors in the community, and some volunteers off the street, the entire effort was carried out with little or no assistance from outside the county.

The volunteers who carry the Armed Forces Emergency Services pager are to be commended for their unerring dedication to our men and women who are serving in every corner of the earth in the Armed Forces.

The Chapter has successfully increased the number of certified instructors this year and they will be able to serve a larger population with Health and Safety courses without calling on the same tired instructors all the time.  The Chapter provides a great service in all the course offerings but the babysitting course has proved to be a very popular offering.

Special thanks go to the volunteers who provide the “hospitality” at the blood drives throughout the county.  These smiling faces are valuable to the community and to the Faulkner County Chapter as they make blood donors feel appreciated. 

The future of this Chapter is, as always, in the hands of some extremely good volunteers, some very dedicated board members and highly qualified staff members.  The challenges are great because not only must these people be prepared to provide the services, but if we do not have another highly successful fundraising campaign we may not continue to have the opportunity to serve the community of Faulkner County.  During the 2002-03 fiscal year, we went through a year of deficit spending; we dipped into our reserves and spent about $35,000.  During the 2003-04 fiscal year, we also found it necessary to dip into our reserves to the tune of approximately $7500.  Recently we projected that we must raise about $35,000 in our Heroes campaign this year to meet our budget.  We must succeed because we don’t have any reserve left to bail us out.  There are other challenges facing the Red Cross.  We are currently studying how we might extend our services to areas that do not have their own chapters.  The Red Cross has always tried to provide services to those areas but we are going to take a look at those services and study how we can make them more efficient.  It looks like the Faulkner Chapter may be asked to help provide service to Perry and Conway counties.

The people who work as volunteers with the Faulkner County Chapter of the American Red Cross are very resourceful and I predict, because of them, we will meet the future challenges and be a stronger chapter because of the experience of getting through some tough times.  I look forward to working with all of these volunteers and with our new board members during the upcoming year and I am confident the Chapter will have another great year.

  Community Activities Report

The American Red Cross has been providing service to Faulkner County since September 17, 1917, when the chapter was originally chartered during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. The Red Cross is an integral link in the overall network of service providers.  Those services include, but are not limited to: response to disaster and single family emergencies; service to military families; preparation and training for disaster response; health & safety education and training; coordination of Entergy Project Deserve (a utility assistance program for the elderly and/or disabled); and support for blood services. The Chapter also participates in community events to provide information to the community and company health fairs.  We also make educational presentations to civic groups, schools, and other organizations.

 Listed below are some figures representing service areas for the 2003-04 year.

                                             Disaster Services:                                 Emergency Services:

                                            Disaster Incidents:                      3            Military Cases:        137

                                        Single Family Emergencies:            32            Project Deserve:      124

                                             Disaster Classes:                      16

                                         Health & Safety Education:            Blood Services:

                                            Classes Taught:             254               Units Collected:       4,959

                                            Class Participants:            1,712 

Volunteers

Volunteers are the life-blood of Red Cross and the services we provide.  If we did not have dedicated, loyal volunteers we would not be able to provide all of the above services.  Listed below are the numbers of volunteers we have in each of the service areas. 

Disaster Services:       29          Health & Safety:          26    Emergency Services:    4         Blood Services:       34

Special Projects:            13