Hotline and Web site still active for hurricane relief donations
By Daily Press staff
The Santa Monica Red Cross has raised more than $400,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief and 42 local volunteers have been deployed to the disaster area.
Additionally, the Santa Monica chapter has opened 26 displaced persons cases, representing 42 individuals. Those cases have been processed by the Santa Monica chapter, which is providing comfort, aid, financial support and general assistance to those evacuated from the disaster zone. Displaced persons are from both Mississippi and Louisiana.
“The Santa Monica chapter is offering a full range of services for those here from the disaster area,” said Santa Monica Red Cross Chapter Executive Director John Pacheco. “We are issuing debit cards that may be used for urgent purchases of food, clothing and other necessities. The chapter is also rendering general assistance, comfort and referrals to those in town seeking help. Mental health and counseling services are also available.”
A computer has been set up in the chapter lobby to enable displaced clients to go online and try and locate missing or lost loved ones through the family links registry link at www.redcross.org.
The Santa Monica chapter has processed nearly 700 new volunteers thus far. Most of the new sign-ups are completing the required orientation and course work required for assignment to the disaster area and a Red Cross service center or shelter.
As of Monday, 42 individuals — many of them Santa Monica residents — are on their way to work or are already working in disaster relief in one of 707 shelters in 24 states including the District of Columbia. This past weekend, 128 additional local volunteers completed training to work in the disaster area. That is a total of 628 new volunteers signed up and trained to work in Hurricane Katrina relief since the disaster started two weeks ago.
In total, the American Red Cross has more than 73,000 volunteers now meeting the changing needs of tens of thousands of survivors. Plans are to recruit 40,000 more volunteers to serve in disaster relief in the weeks and months to come — both in Santa Monica and in disaster relief posts around the country. To date, the American Red Cross is housing more than 207,000 evacuees in its shelters. Katrina disaster relief donations counted by the Santa Monica chapter so far total slightly more than $400,000, $94,000 of which was raised on the Santa Monica Pier over the Labor Day weekend in conjunction with 102.7 KIIS-FM. Nationally, the American Red Cross has raised $602 million for Katrina disaster relief.
The American Red Cross of Santa Monica and the city of Santa Monica is working on the formation of a coalition of service providers, nonprofit charitable organizations and churches which will map out strategies of working together to insure that displaced persons who come here for aid and services get what they need in a timely and efficient manner, Pacheco said.
Displaced persons from the Hurricane Katrina disaster area are eligible for substantial aid in the form of financial support and services from a variety of resources including the Red Cross.
The Santa Monica chapter's toll free Katrina disaster relief hotline at 866-733- 5010 is operational. The hotline is a call-in center for information such as how and where to make monetary donations and how to volunteer locally or at a disaster relief service center where the Red Cross has set up shelters or service centers.
The hotline also can be used to link up people who wish to make donations of clothing and other goods or services with individuals, charities or organizations who are looking to acquire and distribute clothing and goods or services to Hurricane Katrina victims.
A national, toll free, 24-hour emergency line also has been set up so that survivors of the disaster can call for financial assistance by dialing 800-975-7585. Anyone looking for missing relatives or friends can call 877-LOVED-1S for the family links registry.
Go online at www.redcrossofsanta-monica.org. Donate online at www.red-cross.org, or, call 1-800-HELP-NOW. In Spanish: www.cruzrojaamericana.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 13, 2005. Read the original PDF.