Crossroads Redcross Chapter

The American Red Cross, Crossroads Chapter has served Victoria, Goliad, DeWitt, Jackson, Lavaca and Calhoun counties since 1917. Our services to these counties include disaster relief, assistance to military families, and teaching/training the communities in health and safety, CPR, First Aid and AED (automated external defibrillator) usage. The American Red Cross office is centrally located in Victoria at 2805 N. Navarro, Suite 500, in the Patty Dodson Health Center. The American Red Cross, Crossroads Chapter has a staff of two (2) and approximately 50 volunteers that deliver the services to the counties. Each county has a Disaster Action Team (DAT). These DAT members service their respective county. These volunteers have attended all the required classes so that they can deliver the same services to disaster victims as the staff but faster since they reside in the respective county. Our goal is to continue delivering our services to victims of disasters no matter what the cause is, to keep our local military families in touch with their deployed loved ones in case of an emergency, to educate and prepare our communities on how to live healthy and safely, how to prepare and survive natural disasters. Our staff and our volunteers are very dedicated to the American Red Cross mission and the communities that we serve. The American Red Cross mission is: The American Red Cross, a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and guided by it Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross Movement, will provide relief to victims of disaster and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Recently the chapter purchased software for our computers. The software was purchased through Tech Soup. This software has become instrumental in our daily operations. As the Executive Director, I use the software for writing grants, correspondence, communications with the advisory board, spread sheets on fund raisers, balance sheets for financial records, and for tracing cost of disasters and number of individuals that are assisted through Red Cross efforts. The Disaster Services Director uses it to develop her reports, cost analysis on the disaster, communications, correspondence and notices to her volunteer staff. Volunteer rosters are also kept by using the new software; each county has its own volunteer staff and DAT to make sure that the maximum services of the American Red Cross are delivered. The Disaster Director keeps her rosters with her at all times. The software purchase has enabled us to become a more creative and efficient office; we have learned to develop our own event programs, invitations, announcements, and posters, instead of using a commercial printer, also saving us money. The American Red Cross is a non-profit organization. Each chapter survives on grants, donations/contributions, and chapter sponsored fund raisers. Many people assume that the American Red Cross receives federal funds and /or state aid. This is not the truth; the citizens support the Red Cross. This year our annual fund raiser only produced 10% of what the chapter will need to withstand the upcoming hurricane season here on the Texas Gulf Coast. Should we me awarded this grant the funds received would go toward out Disaster Relief Fund, by doing that anyone having a disaster that the Red Cross is called out on will benefit from your donation. Your donation would effect, possibly as many lives as the software you make. The spreadsheet is used in tracking the type of disaster, county, family size, cost, available funds to the family and date of the disaster. All of these are facts that are needed to complete several different Red Cross forms. We now have it all on one spreadsheet. For our annual fund raiser, the Microsoft software was very important. The software was used for agendas, communications, spread sheets, programs, posters, invitations, and thank you letters. The software was also used for auction items (live & silent), silent auction bids, registration for live auction, and informational sheets to the auctioneer about auction items. As you can see, every aspect of our annual fund raiser was partnered with the new software. As in many businesses these days, computers and software are the blood lines. Your software has definitely made our lives easier here at the Red Cross. We will continue using this software and daily we find new uses for it. On behalf of our staff and volunteers that proudly serve the Crossroads area, Ruth Krier Executive Director