RED CROSS: SINCE 1917, LOCAL ORGANIZATION HAS GIVEN HELP TO THOSE IN NEED

August 1992 Hurricane Andrew rips Southeast Florida to shreds. Thousands are left homeless. Billions of dollars of property damage causes President George Bush to declare the entire region a disaster area.

National Guard troops from across the country are called in to aid storm victims. Spearheading the effort are American Red Cross units from throughout the country.

The American Red Cross is part of an international humanitarian movement that has its roots in 19th century war-torn Europe.

In 1862, Henry Dunant, a young Swiss businessman, wrote "A Memory of Solferino," in which he described what he had seen in 1859 on the northern Italian battlefield where 40,000 troops were killed or wounded and left without help.

His concern touched many, leading to the birth in 1863 of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The first committee, which included Dunant, adopted a red cross on a white background as an emblem, the reverse of the Swiss flag.

Dunant's ideas led to the Geneva Conventions, international treaties designed to protect those war victims: the wounded and sick on land (1864) and sea (1906), prisoners of war (1929) and civilians (1949). Since then 165 governments have signed the Geneva Conventions.

While Dunant's vision was spreading in Europe, civil war was raging in the United States. Clara Barton, a former schoolteacher and government worker who came from a small farm in Massachusetts, went to the battlefield to help care for the wounded.

After the Civil War, Barton went to Europe and learned of the Red Cross movement while working in relief efforts for the civilians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. When she returned to the United States, she worked to persuade the government to sing the Geneva Conventions.

On May 21, 1881, with a group of friends, Barton founded the American Association of the Red Cross. The following year the U.S. Senate ratified the Geneva Conventions, making the United States the 32nd nation to support the international treaty.

Since 1917, the Cape Girardeau County Chapter of the American Red Cross has served the citizens of this county and, when called, delivered relief to disaster victims nationwide.

Most often when people think of the Red Cross they think of blood drives and blood banks; in reality, the Red Cross is far more complex.

Mary Burton, executive director of the Cape County Red Cross, said, "Many people don't usually associate the Red Cross with many of the things we are so active in."

The local Red Cross chapter today provides emergency disaster assistance, compensation to victims of house fires, military information services, CPR-classes and lifeguard training, and serves as a blood depot for 24 hospitals in 17 counties in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois from as far north as Red Bud, Ill., Kennett, Mo.

The Red Cross also coordinates local and regional blood drives, providing manpower, medical equipment and cots.

"We are a separate entity from the blood services," Burton said. "We don't benefit at all from blood drives; we send the blood to St. Louis for them to check it and distribute it as they see fit."

The staff of three full-time personnel and one part-time assistant has their hands full. In addition to the regular staff, the Red Cross has more than 500 volunteers countywide.

In the last eight months, the chapter gave financial assistance to 90 victims of single-house fires.

"We paid out more than $4,000 in assistance," Burton said. "We try to help these people get back on their feet so that they can help themselves.

"The Cape County Red Cross will do whatever they can for victims of disasters within our capabilities."

If the disaster is considered major a flood, hurricane, tornado or other natural disasters the local chapter can call upon the National Red Cross for assistance. "Then the National Red Cross will send in its people and resources from all over the country, if need be," Burton said.

During the Hurricane Andrew relief effort, Red Cross vehicles served as feeding centers for people who refused to leave their homes to seek refuge in a National Guard shelter. Red Cross units from as far as Canada and Mexico responded to Florida's crisis.

Two specially-trained volunteers from the Cape County Red Cross took the county's emergency relief van to Florida and stayed several weeks.

"We ask for at least a three-week commitment for national disaster workers, if, for no other reason than because it often is costly to send them to where they are going by plane or in the van."

The Red Cross gives financial assistance to people who have hit hard times.

"If someone has been in the hospital running up huge bills, has to take time off work and can no longer pay the rent or utility bills, we try to help them where we can," Burton said. "We have found that if you give people a little push when they are down, they will be more apt to move forward to help themselves."

The Red Cross also serves as a liaison between military personnel and their families during times of crisis. If a family member dies or there is a medical emergency in the military person's immediate family, the Red Cross will contact that person's base through a wire service or by phone. The service is provided free to the families.

"The military does not want to have to deal with the verification processes and footwork involved with deaths or births or medical emergencies," Burton said. "In doing that, and contacting the base, we can run up a bill of $10 to $20 per call."

The Red Cross can also arrange for military personnel to have extended leave time while a family member is in the hospital, or for other personal reasons.

The Red Cross also arranges loans to military persons going through hard times.

The Red Cross holds weekly CPR training classes at the center and seasonal lifeguard training at the Cape Central pool.

"We will also go to businesses to teach first-aid and CPR classes in the workplace," Burton said. She said a lot of businesses will call on the Red Cross because their classes are OSHA approved.

"Our classes meet several business insurance guidelines," Burton said. "We are very proud of the high quality of our programs here."

A common misconception of the safety programs and CPR training is that you have to be a lifeguard or a member of the health-care or emergency-medical-services professions to use the training.

"Most people believe that if they take a CPR class they are going to end up using it on someone in the parking lot of Schnucks. That's not true; about 95 percent of those who are certified end up using their skills to save the life of a friend or family member."

Aside from lifeguard training, the Red Cross instructs several other water safety programs including canoeing, kayaking, boating safety and swimming programs.

"Having gone through a Red Cross-certified program exhibits a high degree of competency," Burton said. "If a lifeguard instructor does not feel comfortable with the abilities of the person, she won't certify that person."

To help people prevent personal health emergencies, Red Cross nurses and volunteers in many chapters administer programs in nutrition, health assessment in the workplace, stress management and more. They also meet the needs of the general public with a variety of programs such as exercise and telephone reassurance activities for the elderly, immunization clinics and health fairs, high-blood-pressure screening and follow-up, and voluntary work in hospitals and clinics.

Cape Girardeau has a certified AIDS-HIV educator working for the Red Cross.

Although the Red Cross receives no money from the federal or state governments, about one-third of its annual budget is provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United Way.

"Without the United Way, we couldn't keep our doors open," Burton said. "That's why it is so important that we supplement our budget through private donations."

Burton said the Cape Girardeau chapter is in desperate need of both volunteers and donations.

"We can't have things like the Get-Your-Goat promotion and the Swim-A-Cross all the time," she said. "We end up relying heavily on private donations. All money donated within this county is used for Cape County only."

Burton said there are plenty of things older persons who are homebound and people without a small amount of spare time can do to help out.

"We provide all the training our volunteers require free of cost," Burton said. "All we need is a little bit of your time."