The Red Cross

Friday, we did a couple of agency visits. We went to the Blount County Red Cross and Haven House, the domestic abuse shelter.

Betty Hale gave us a tour at the Red Cross’s new office off Lamar Alexander. Walking through there, it hit me: without the Red Cross, we’d be lost.

The first time I ever dealt with the Red Cross, I hadn’t been working but a couple of years, and we had the train wreck over in Knoxville when the plume made us evacuate all those people. And that was the first time I ever had to open an EOC – emergency operations center. We had everyone come together: all of the utility companies, all the fire departments, all the law enforcement, all the mayors offices, and city managers. And Betty and the Red Cross were there.

I didn’t have a clue, I mean not a clue, what the Red Cross did. And I found out real quick because they handled all the sheltering, and they handled all the food for those folks. It ended up being a smaller incident, but there are just so many disasters that we plan for, and then there are those we don’t plan for. But you never know when you’re gonna’ need them.

And you don’t see it. If things are good, and there are no disasters, and everybody’s happy, you don’t see the need. But boy, when you need them, man oh man, do they step up. Imagine how life would be without the Red Cross - the shelters, CPR, and the preventive things they do. How many people are alive today because of their CPR classes or lifeguard training or anything like that they’ve done?

I gotta' go for now, but I'll blog more later on my visit with Haven House.

I did want to say one last thing: I intend on visiting every United Way Agency before campaign gets here, and if anyone would like to join me, let Jennifer or Aaron at United Way know. And as a final note, thank you to all who have given to United Way in the past. It makes a difference. Look for more soon as I blog you some more.

See you soon,
Dave Bennett