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Dear Friends of the Red Cross,
At 5 a.m. on one cold winter morning, the Red Cross learns of a
four-alarm fire in Brooklyn. Within minutes, trained Red Cross
disaster relief workers rush to the scene to aid the people
affected. Our mental health volunteers help the victims deal with the
shock of being burned out of their home and our experts
provide them with food, a warm drink, clothing, help replacing prescription
medications, and a place to stay. Our caseworkers assist the families until they have
regained their footing and
found more permanent housing.
No other organization does what we do. The mission of the American Red Cross in
Greater New York is to help people avoid, prepare for, and cope with
emergencies. We perform our mission every day, 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. Whether it is one of the eight fires a day we respond
to, a winter blizzard, a summer blackout or something worse, our trained employees
and volunteers are there to help New Yorkers. As Fire Commissioner Scoppetta stated, “The Red Cross arrives almost as fast as the fire
engines do. At a fire in the middle of the night, the Red Cross is
there.” And because we know that a fire or other local disaster is
often just the beginning of the emergency, we also help people
rebuild their lives after a crisis.
The Red Cross also helps people prepare for any
type of disaster. Since shortly after 9/11, the Red Cross has trained
more than 28,000 New Yorkers in our widely acclaimed Preparing for the Unexpected
class. We’ve taught more than 96,000 members of our community vital
life saving skills such as CPR and First Aid this year alone.
Our message is heard by hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each
and every year.
We do all this with the assistance of
6,000 dedicated volunteers who make up 93 percent of our work force
and with the financial support of our donors throughout the New York
community. We are an organization of New Yorkers for New
Yorkers. For those of you who contribute as
a donor or volunteer, I thank you. With your support, the Red Cross
will remain strong and always ready to respond.
In June of this year, Bob Bender, our CEO for
the past 18 years and a 42 year veteran of the Red Cross, told me of
his desire to retire. On behalf of all of us in New
York, I want to thank Bob for his many contributions over the
years. In particular, he was at the center of our unprecedented
response to the tragedy of 9-11. Fortunately, we have found a
very accomplished successor in Theresa A. Bischoff. Terry is joining us from the New York
University Medical Center where she was President.
Terry is well known in the New York community and joins us on
January 1, 2004. We look forward to her leadership.
We invite you to learn more about the American Red Cross in
Greater New York in our 2003 Annual Report and to visit us regularly
at
www.nyredcross.org.
William Gray
Chairman
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