LOCAL RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS HONORED

Each year more aid requests are received and fulfilled by the American Red Cross, which is why the local chapter paid tribute this week to the people who make it happen: the volunteers.

Mary Burton, executive director of the Southeast Missouri chapter of the Red Cross, said 95 percent of all work performed by the Red Cross is done by volunteers. Over the last year, she said, local volunteers have responded to many individual and major disaster requests, and the demand for volunteers gets stronger everyday.

The Red Cross held its 80th annual meeting Tuesday at the Drury Lodge, and more than 1,200 volunteers were honored for their work. Fifty-seven volunteers received special recognition for going "above and beyond" in their service to the organization.

Miller said local volunteers have been working hard to service Cape Girardeau residents and others in outlying areas. In the past year, she said, she has seen significant increases in requests for post-fire relief and especially grief counseling due to the loss of a child in a fire.

"Our volunteers are trained to deal with grief when there is loss due to disaster," she said. "There's been so many children in the last year that have perished in fires and the families didn't have any type of hospitalization or burial money and the families need help. How sad that is. They've lost their home, they don't even have the clothes to go to the funeral, and they can't even afford to bury their kids."

Burton said her chapter has also seen increased demand for health and safety education courses. First aid and CPR courses were extremely popular last year, she said, especially courses targeted for children.

"We will have reached about 3,000 people through health and safety courses using grant money alone," she said. "We are increasing our health and safety classes, especially youth first aid and CPR, because more people are requesting it. The challenge for our future is to make sure that we find the funding to sustain this type of program, because this grant money now has dried up on us."

That's not the only challenge the group faces, however. Burton said more trained volunteers are needed in outlying communities so that the Red Cross has a quicker response time to disasters in those areas.

"We've had 80 years of meeting our communities' needs," she said. "That has been a very big challenge, and a very rewarding 80 years. We want to make sure that our future keeps up with the needs of our community."

Special Recognition was provided to the following volunteers:

-- 1997 retiring board member: Cristy Richardson.

-- Armed forces emergency services: Dr. Gary Bridges, David Lazada, Burt Lehman, Joe Martin, Morris Owens, Jerome Stauber, Denise Stewart, Reuben Watson.

-- Blood services: Ilena Aslin, Ben and Sarah Borchelt, Virginia Criddle, Margaret Crites, Jeanne Farrar, Mary Friese, Dave Kaempfer, Don Miles, Helen Mosby, Peggy Nelson, Carolyn Robinson, Eloise Roth, Roger Scott, Meta Siemers, Lori Welter.

-- Disaster services: Susan Brewer, Bill Engleman, Marjorie Engleman, Ruth Hathaway, William LaLonde, Darlene MacCubbin, Curtis Mathes, Marlene Osburn, Morris Osburn, Glenna Shearon, George Shepherd.

-- Health and safety services: Stacy Busch, Jan Davis, Daphna Fiehler, Doug Gannon, Scott Givens, Tamara Halter, Louise Kennedy, Loretta King, Richard Kinsey, James Reedy, Leah Schrum, Ed Slaughter, Sandy Wendel, William Wickham, Alice Wybert.

-- Volunteer services: Richard Cates, Virginia Cates.

-- Youth services: Anna Bock, Maria Green, Charles Masegian Jr., Kenneth Masegian, Dustin McDowell.