American Red Cross Southern California Region

As disaster responses continue across the nation, we recognize the generosity of our donors including Kia America. The American Red Cross continues to provide food and relief items to those affected by Hurricane Beryl, which broke records as the earliest Category 5 storm ever recorded. Thank you to Kia for their generous donation to support emergency disaster relief and recovery efforts for communities in need!

Guess what? National Preparedness Month is around the corner, and we’re going to be celebrating all September long! Stay tuned for tips, resources and more to help you be better prepared for disasters and emergencies. Get a head start by downloading the free Red Cross Emergency App - text GETEMERGENCY to 90999!

On this #ThankfulThursday, we’re recognizing our San Bernardino County chapter board member Amber Hidalgo with IAPMO for hosting a great Red Cross blood drive last week! The blood drive collected over 30 units of blood. We’re so grateful for hosts like IAPMO, who play a vital role in helping us collect blood for patients in need. One person can help save hundreds of lives by hosting a blood drive. Learn more about hosting blood drives here: https://rdcrss.org/48ASl2f

Our Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) team recently participated in the 2024 Stand Down at the San Diego Rescue Mission South County Lighthouse. At the three-day event, the Red Cross provided hygiene items for veterans in attendance. Other agencies provided a wide range of comprehensive services for veterans including employment information, legal support, programs for unhoused veterans, medical assistance, help for veterans’ pets and so much more. It's estimated that over 1,000 veterans received assistance at the local Stand Down event. “You can see in the eyes of the participants that they appreciate all the help they were given,” says H. Randy Underwood, local SAF Program Specialist. “Many are homeless and got services they did not know about that changed the trajectory of their lives. This was a humbling experience."

We’re recruiting passionate individuals for AmeriCorps positions in Santa Ana! AmeriCorps members at the Red Cross support our volunteer workforce and help the community prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. 📆 Term: September 16, 2024 – July 25, 2025 💲 Benefits: Biweekly stipend, education award to pay off student loans or towards new education costs, health care and dental coverage, student loan forbearance, childcare assistance, extensive training and professional development 🔗 Tap here to apply: https://lnkd.in/g74g4pyv

We’re grateful for our dedicated board members like David Engwall, incoming Board Chair for our Orange County Chapter. David has been on our Orange County Board of Directors since 2016, but his experience with the Red Cross began long before that. David hosted blood drives at Johnson & Johnson for nearly 30 years, was an inaugural member of our Biomedical Committee and also makes time to donate blood himself. David also volunteers with our disaster team and provides compassion and care to those affected by home fires, wildfires and more. “I'm very grateful to be elected the new board chairperson. The best part of the Red Cross is the caring compassionate people that volunteer and work in this wonderful organization. My primary objective is to fill our volunteers, staff and board members' hearts with JOY from the great work they do to fulfill our mission.” Tap here to learn more about the humanitarian work of our volunteer board members: https://rdcrss.org/4dRpid0

Supervisor Joel Anderson's office recently recognized our Women, Infants and Children (WIC) staff in honor of National Nonprofit Day. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the partnership between the Red Cross in San Diego and San Diego WIC. In 1974, Red Cross nursing staff were assisting pregnant, inner-city teenagers when they discovered WIC and created a partnership in San Diego County to administer help to families in need. Ever since, Red Cross WIC has been providing access to food benefits, nutrition education, breastfeeding support and community referrals for women and children in San Diego communities.

We’re grateful for our generous partner Circle K West Coast and the community of Victorville for a successful blood drive this week! Special thanks to several store employees who drove 70+miles to donate, Jamel and the team at #6059, our champion recruiter and cheerleader Tina Vazquez and the leadership of VP of Operations and Wholesale Fuel, George Wilkins, for helping to make it such a great day. An impressive 25 units of blood were donated! Every blood donation makes a difference, because each donation has the potential to save more than one life. #ThankfulThursday

“Tote”-ally awesome! The Sunny Hills High School Red Cross Club recently put together totes for hope for over 50 veterans and military families! These totes were provided to Heroes Landing to help veterans and were also distributed to Marine Reservists' families at a pre-deployment Yellow Ribbon event. We’re grateful to the Sunny Hills High School Red Cross Club for helping us support our local military community!

Last week, IEEE MOVE launched its third vehicle, the MOVE-3, designed to support those impacted by disasters including wildfires, storms, flooding and more. The vehicle will be kept at our San Diego office and operated by IEEE Red Cross trained volunteers. If needed, the vehicle can be deployed to other regions or states to offer its emergency shelter operations power, internet access, phone charging, and lighting.