Still at it after all of these years
MID-CITY Through fires and floods, famines and foreign conflicts, the local chapter of the American Red Cross has been there, providing food and shelter, blood and bandages to those holding on in the aftermath.
This month, the humanitarian organization celebrates 90 years in Santa Monica and is asking residents to help it continue to thrive by donating their time and money to those who are less fortunate.
“Man, how time flies,” said John Pacheco, executive director of the Santa Monica chapter. “We’ve been through some tough times, but we have always been able to persevere thanks to the support of the community.”
On Sunday, March 24, the Red Cross will host its “Red Tie Affair” at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in downtown to help raise money for disaster preparedness. The local chapter has committed itself to raising $1 million to ensure that funds are available to maintain Red Cross’ preparedness, response and community safety.
“Providing timely, effective and compassionate response to the victims of a disaster requires the right plan, the right resources and the right people — and that takes money,” said Ann Greenspun, chair of the Santa Monica Red Cross board of directors.
With the fundraising effort, the chapter hopes to acquire an emergency response vehicle to support mobile feeding and sheltering operations around Santa Monica, plus acquire additional emergency supplies and equipment for a catastrophic level disaster.
The supplies include cots, blankets and comfort items. The Santa Monica chapter is looking to acquire the newest technologies to increase it’s ability to provide financial relief and other services to disaster victims as well as enhance volunteer recruitment, training and deployment.
“Funds raised would also be used to improve disaster management and leadership expertise by more focused volunteer recruitment, training and deployment systems,” Greenspun said. “We are asking the public to please consider becoming a ‘partner in preparedness’ to assure that help is here — when it’s needed most.”
The chapter already has created new partnerships with local businesses and employers to bring preparedness messages to the 500,000 persons who live, work in or visit the community daily.
The chapter’s goals also include taking the “be prepared” message to new audiences.
“The lesson we learned from (Hurricane) Katrina was that preparedness is really, in the end, a local activity,” Pacheco said.“Like most agencies, we are prepared for the kinds of disasters we’ve had in the past, but Katrina showed us that problems can grow much bigger than you plan for so we have to rethink how we do things. You have to have contingency plans, and that’s what we are doing now with the Santa Monica Organizations Active in Disaster, or SMOAD.”
Through SMOAD, the Red Cross has been able to create a coalition of public and private nonprofits, houses of worship and local businesses that will be planning the necessary coordination of relief activities in the event of an emergency.
With $4,500 from City Hall, the Red Cross was able to significantly increase the number of beds it can offer.
“We went from being rated as a one apartment house fire chapter to a 250-person disaster shelter,” Pacheco said. “A small investment can sometimes go a long way.”
Santa Monica’s chapter, one of four in the Los Angeles area, was born out of small contributions made by residents during World War I, according to Red Cross historian Anna Lisa DeBois.
During that time, the Santa Monica Women’ Club was working out of various homes and public buildings to collect items to send overseas to Belgium, and “help the underprivileged across the pond,”DeBois said.
The Santa Monica Red Cross chapter was incorporated in 1917 and was located at a building that still stands today near the corner of Fourth Street and Wilshire Boulevard. At that time the chapter covered all of West Los Angeles, including the communities of Beverly Hills, Malibu, Venice and some portions of Hollywood.
“In its early days, nursing was an important part of the Red Cross,” DuBois said. “People were recruited in Santa Monica to help with the flu epidemic in 1918. That was probably the first big effort of the chapter.”
From there, Santa Monicans were involved in several major disasters, including the Long Beach earthquake of 1933, a tremblor that destroyed a number of brick buildings. Red Cross helped provide relief to families who lost their homes as a result of the quake.
During the Great Depression, the Red Cross provided food and shelter for the down-and-out, and received a commendation from the queen of England during World War II for taking in hundreds of refugees from Europe who were fleeing Nazi oppression.
In recent years, the chapter provided shelter for about 2,500 people following the Northridge quake in 1994, providing cots at Santa Monica College and Santa Monica High School.
And the chapter was particularly helpful in the months following the Farmer’s Market tragedy in 2003, the deadliest traffic-related incident in the city’s history. The chapter provided counseling, medical care and shelter for first responders and merchants who were deeply affected by the carnage.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Red Cross Santa Monica took care of 360 families and raised roughly $2.5 million from local sources, Pacheco said.
“I think that really spoke to the generosity in this community and sort of reinforced our reason for being in this community and why we have thrived for so long,” Pacheco said. “This is where we belong.”
The Red Cross not only provides assistance during disasters and tragedy, it also provides health and safety education, CPR and First AID training and youth services throughout the year. The office, located at 1450 11th Street, is also a recognized blood collection center.
“We are very lucky to have a Red Cross chapter right here in Santa Monica,” said Councilman Bob Holbrook. “They are not commonly found all over the place. They are a terrific asset for the city because along with providing relief when a tragedy occurs, they provide services like CPR classes, and that is very important.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.