Red Cross Month

Floor Speech

RED CROSS MONTH -- (Senate - February 27, 2008)

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the Red Cross and its campaign to encourage citizen preparedness for disasters.

For 65 years, since the first proclamation by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Presidents of the United States have designated March as Red Cross Month.

I am proud to support this year's proclamation in recognizing this great organization, whose activities include lifesaving courses, blood drives, sheltering families displaced by fire or flood, and responding to major disasters. This January, for example, Red Cross work in my home State of Maine included an urgent blood drive amid ice and snow that had reduced some hospitals' blood supply to a single day. Other Maine Red Cross workers were taking care of a seven-member family in the town of Skowhegan who had lost their home and possessions in a fire.

I know the good works of the Red Cross both as a Maine resident and as a Senator. As ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, I have worked closely with emergency management agencies and nonprofit organizations for years. I know the Red Cross has not only saved many lives and comforted millions but has taken steps to improve its structure and capabilities for disaster response.

The record of recent years for terrorism, fires, earthquakes, floods, and other disasters underscores the need for preparedness not only at all levels of government but among individual citizens and families.

I therefore commend the Red Cross for focusing their public-communication efforts this year on the theme of ``Be Red Cross Ready.'' It is a well-chosen theme: Red Cross survey work finds that up to 60 percent of Americans are entirely unprepared for disaster. They have no emergency supplies, no firstaid or CPR training, no rendezvous or communication plans or other precautions.

The catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina reminded us that government and other first responders, no matter how efficient and heroic, cannot appear instantly at every point affected by a disaster. Every citizen should be prepared to serve as a first responder for family and neighbors if official or volunteer responders cannot offer immediate assistance.

Encouraging individual responsibility and preparedness to augment government and private organization efforts can reinforce our national response framework to provide truly comprehensive and all-hazards protection.

For promoting readiness, and for all its good works, the American Red Cross deserves the thanks of all Americans and the recognition of Red Cross Month.

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