I Cross My Heart

Photo courtesy of American Red Cross

by Sydney Holt, volunteer contributor

“I Cross My Heart” – A promise, playground rhyme and a familiar country tune, the saying “I cross my heart” is one that we associate with the truth or a pledge. When it comes to taking the pledge to volunteer, I think many of us become overwhelmed and let our commitments fall by the wayside between school, work, parenting and all the other roles we take on as productive members of society. Well, listen up because do I have news for you… Volunteering can be what YOU make it!

Don’t believe me? 30 minutes, a few hours, part-time – take a look at a few ways you can volunteer with DFW Red Cross in 2014 – I “Cross My Heart” it’ll be quick!

30 – 45 minutes – Donate Blood. Contribute to your community's blood supply and change lives. Do it on your own schedule, volunteer as much as and as often as your schedule permits.

A few hours - Learn CPR or Become a Red Cross Instructor. Be ready to serve your community (and loved ones) at any time by learning the important skill of CPR. Then take it to the next level by attending additional courses to become a certified Red Cross Instructor. The Red Cross also offers other life-saving training classes, including Lifeguarding, Babysitting & Swimming/Water Safety.

More flexible – Admin work, accounting experience, writing experience – we welcome all of your talents! To search for opportunities in the DFW area (and beyond) click here.

No time? Don’t feel bad – be a financial participant by donating $10 – text ‘redcross’ to 90999.

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National Preparedness Month: Getting Red Cross Trained Can Save Lives

by Mary McCormack, intern contributor

Red Cross volunteer instructor
Natalie Steadman

This September marks the tenth year for National Preparedness Month and the American Red Cross is reminding our community how to stay safe, develop disaster plans and get information on being prepared during a disaster.

Locally, the Red Cross provides classes that help those how to become prepared for everyday emergencies. Classes such as CPR/AED training, water safety, babysitting training and disaster training courses are available at local chapters and sometimes even online.

Natalie Steadman, a professor at Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center and a volunteer instructor for the South Plains Chapter in Lubbock discusses the importance of why somebody should be prepared.

“It’s important to know even some of the most basic health traning,” Steadman said. “Just taking some simple courses can help you save somebody that you love.”

Steadman receives first aid training for her job every two years. She was able to use her training to help a man she did not know and ended up saving his life.

Littlefield, a small town outside of Lubbock, was hosting a football game one Friday night and Steadman happened to be on the sidelines. A photographer was also nearby when he started having heart complications and became unresponsive.

“I never thought that day would ever come,” Steadman said. “I always wondered, would I freeze when it came down to it, or would all of my training knowledge kick in?” 

Every month, the American Red Cross offers many classes that teach basic skills on how to save somebody who needs immediate medical attention. Without this training, Steadman would not have been able to save someone’s life.

“I’ve learned that the American Red Cross is all about helping those people in need at the very worst times in life,” Steadman said. “They have so many things to offer on how you can help, and I do my best to be an advocate.” 

You can search for health and safety classes near you on RedCross.org. See upcoming class schedules for DFW here.

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CPR and a Cocktail

by Raul Jauregui, volunteer contributor

DFW YPA members learn
life-saving CPR techniques

Do you ever feel like you could be doing more to give back? 

This is one question I constantly toss around in my mind. I wanted to join an organization that had the same ideas of giving back as I did. Being a young professional, the Red Cross DFW Young Professional’s Auxiliary (YPA) seemed like the perfect answer to my question. 

The YPA is a social networking group that comes together every couple of months to promote the Red Cross or introduce different types of Red Cross services, like life-saving training at the event held at SISU Bar and Restaurant last month. Keith Bridges of the Red Cross demonstrated techniques and steps on how to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). 

The session was impromptu with several people huddled around a demonstration table…until it buckled under the weight of the volunteers who were learning the chest pump technique! It was a humorous moment, but it did not stop Keith from showing how to properly apply the chest pump. The volunteers moved to a more secured table and Keith took the opportunity to give tricks and insights on CPR, like how the timing of applied chest pumps is the same beat as the Bee Gees song "Staying Alive." It is the simple trivia that can make all the difference.

Red Cross instructor Keith Bridges teaches CPR
techniques at a YPA event last month.

The training got many of the event attendees interested in taking formal CPR training at the local Red Cross Dallas Area Chapter so they could save lives through a few more hours of their time. (P.S. Since it’s National CPR/AED Awareness Week, it’s the perfect time to look into getting trained! June class schedules for DFW are now up at RedCross.org/DFW.)

Red Cross YPA events like these always add value because it brings together many types of young professionals who don't normally cross paths. It’s an extra opportunity to meet others who have similar interests to you and learn the degrees of separation that are closer to Kevin Bacon than you realize. Each event always leaves me feeling like I gave more back to my community than when I first walked in. For me, these are the beginning steps to giving back with an organization I feel fits me. It’s the opening chapter in what I hope is a long story with the Red Cross.

If you want to support the YPA, check out our Red Hot Summer Fiesta this Thursday, June 6 starting at 6pm at Hacienda on Henderson. 100% of proceeds will benefit Red Cross Disaster Relief. To learn more, visit us online at RedCross.org/DFW or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AmericanRedCrossDFWYPA.

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Like Mother, Like Son: Teaching and Learning in Service as a Red Cross Mom

by Rebecca Lawson, staff contributor 

Red Cross Dallas Chapter
Board Member Jodi Lash

Growing up, Jodi Lash remembers watching her parents pay their bills every few weeks – and how they always set aside a little for charity, even though they didn’t have much. Now, as a Bonnie McElveen Hunter Lifetime Tiffany Circle member, Legacy Society member and Chair of the Dallas Area Chapter Board, Jodi has not only continued her parents’ charitable example with her children, but continues to make a lasting impact within the Red Cross. 

When Jodi first began supporting the Red Cross, like many, she associated it with disaster relief, blood and the lifesaving classes she had taken as a child. But once she got more involved, she discovered the full scope of its mission and was inspired by the spirit of volunteerism and seeing “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” She felt compelled to do something on a bigger scale. 

Upon moving to Dallas in 2006, Jodi recalls touring the Dallas warehouse along with her son, Jonathan, who she and her husband were teaching about charitable giving: “I remember welling up with tears as they explained how the warehouse mobilizes and what it’s used for…I was thinking, I have to be part of this.” Her son was equally impressed, and as a result made his first charitable gift, purchasing much needed blankets with his Bar Mitzvah money for the Red Cross. 

As it turns out, that warehouse tour was only the beginning of the Red Cross journey for both mother and son. Jonathan began volunteering at the Dallas Area Chapter, at first working in the warehouse and then gradually in each of the other departments, as part of the Volunteer Public Service component of the Congressional Award. At age 16, he also became a certified CPR instructor, teaching others how to save lives. Jodi recalls how Jonathan wanted so badly to go with the disaster teams out on calls: “He would say to me, ‘I don’t feel like I’m doing enough.’ But I explained to him, you really are – because someone you train may go out and save a life.” 

Jodi was equally taken with the Dallas Tiffany Circle when she attended one of their luncheons shortly after moving to Dallas. “They had such a passion for the mission, and such big generous hearts, and they welcomed me with a huge Texas welcome” Jodi joined the Dallas Tiffany Circle in 2008 and became a Bonnie McElveen Hunter Lifetime member in 2011. “The women who are part of this special group are so incredible,” says Jodi. “They span all age groups and backgrounds and professions and geographic locations, but they all come together in this tightly bonded group of women who rally around the mission of the Red Cross.” 

Jodi and Jonathan’s Red Cross experiences came together at a Dallas Tiffany Circle event last year, where Jonathan was the speaker and gave a hands-on CPR demonstration. 

Overall, Jodi says, “The different ways everyone helps really makes up the heart of the Red Cross. And it has such broad implications as it spreads out into the community.” Jodi has certainly lived that message – both through her own work as board chair and with Tiffany Circle, and by passing that legacy of philanthropy to her children, as it was passed to her. 

To begin your Red Cross story, visit us at redcross.org/dfw.

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People More Apt to Perform "Hands-Only" CPR than Traditional Method

New American Red Cross survey shows majority of respondents more likely to give CPR without mouth-to-mouth contact.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of people say they would be more likely to perform CPR on someone if they did not need to have mouth-to-mouth contact such as through rescue breaths, according to an American Red Cross survey.

“Hands-Only CPR is an effective lifesaving technique especially for an untrained bystander who witnesses someone suddenly collapse,” said Dr. David Markenson, chair, American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council. “Full CPR is recommended for infants, children and those with respiratory problems.”

The national survey of more than 1,000 adults found that when needed, people are more willing to perform Hands-Only CPR (chest compressions without rescue breaths) than full CPR (series of chest compressions and rescue breaths) on strangers – regardless of age, gender or appearance of the person in need of help.

Among the findings:

• One in four respondents (25 percent) has been in a situation where someone may have required CPR;
• Less than half (46 percent) of those in such situations have helped give CPR;
• Three in five (61 percent) said they are confident they know how to help someone who is unconscious and in need of CPR; and
• While two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents have taken a CPR class, nearly half (45 percent) said they were last trained more than five years go.

The Red Cross recommends individuals take CPR classes every two years and refresh with online courses in the interim.

The survey findings were released just before the July 4th weekend, when many people travel or take part in outdoor activities.

“People need to know what to do in an emergency,” Markenson added. “Whether it’s performing CPR, using an automatic external defibrillator or providing first aid, knowing these lifesaving skills is critical, particularly as more individuals and families engage in swimming and other outdoor activities.”

As the nation’s premiere training organization, the Red Cross offers a variety of ways for people to learn and review these lifesaving skills. Individuals can:

• Take a First Aid/CPR/AED course.
• Attend a 30-minute Hands-Only Citizen CPR course at their local Red Cross.
• Watch the Red Cross Hands-Only CPR video.
• Download the free, new “S.O.S by the American Red Cross” app for Android mobile devices at https://market.android.com/.

CPR, AED and first aid training can provide the skills and confidence to act in an emergency. The next generation of Red Cross training courses include two-year certifications, free digital materials and skill refreshers. Contact your local Red Cross or visit redcross.org/training for information and to register.

Survey details: Telephone survey of 1,010 U.S. Adults 18 years and older on April 15-18, 2011 conducted by ORC International. Margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Comparison Sample From: Telephone survey of 1,018 U.S. Adults 18 years and older on March 26-29, 2010 conducted by ORC International. Margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

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Join the Next Generation of Red Cross Training

What would you do if a friend or loved one needed CPR? Would you be able to give them a chance at life? Join the next generation of Red Cross training at www.redcross.org/cpr. The Red Cross makes it easy to be the one to save a life. Now, you can train in the classroom, online or a combination of the two! See why these folks joined the next generation of Red Cross training:

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Save-a-Life Saturday Photos

To honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and all those involved in the Tucson tragedy, the American Red Cross-Dallas Area Chapter offered free lifesaving training on Saturday, March 19, 2011. Thank you to the 400+ people who learned lifesaving training. Check out these photos from the event:

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Save-a-Life Saturday

To honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and all those involved in the Tucson tragedy, the American Red Cross-Dallas Area Chapter will offer free lifesaving training on Saturday, March 19.

The training will last 45 minutes to one hour, and will include instruction in hands-only CPR, controlling external bleeding and managing shock.

“The tragedy in Tucson is a reminder of how important it is for everyone to know first aid and CPR,” said Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross. “As this tragic event unfolded, several bystanders knew these vital skills, which helped save the lives of many victims, including Congresswoman Giffords. This inspired us to offer this training in order to help save lives in communities nationwide.”

“Congresswoman Giffords is alive today in part because a heroic individual was trained in basic first aid skills,” said Pia Carusone, the congresswoman’s chief of staff. “Training every American in these critical skills is one of the ways that we can ensure that good can come from the horrific events of January 8. You never know when you too might be in a position to save a life. We are very appreciative of the Red Cross for putting on this inspired event in locations around the country, and we encourage every American to get trained on March 19.”

Although most emergencies are not as large as the one in Tucson, it is important for the public to be prepared for ones that can happen at home, the office or at school. In fact, a 2010 Red Cross survey found that one in four people (27 percent) have found themselves in a situation where someone needed CPR. Recent research also shows that if more people learned hands-only CPR, we could increase the likelihood of surviving cardiac emergencies that occur outside a hospital by putting more victims within a few steps of lifesaving assistance.

The Red Cross is able to provide this free training through the generous support of Walgreens and Safeway.

“Some of our health care professionals saw first-hand during the Tucson tragedy the value of knowing CPR,” said Greg Wasson, Walgreens President and CEO. “This is invaluable and important training that we’re proud to help provide in partnership with the American Red Cross and in honor of Rep. Giffords as she continues her recovery. Every person trained is a potential life-saver.”

“We can think of no better way to honor Congresswoman Giffords and the other Tucson victims than to equip a greater number of citizens with life savings skills,” said Safeway Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Burd. “We are honored to be a partner in this important national endeavor and commend the Red Cross for leading it.”

Also on March 19, the Red Cross is premiering a special set of videos to teach CPR and first aid skills. Those unable to attend a Save-a-Life Saturday event can also visit www.redcross.org/savealife to see lifesaving skills being taught. The public can also contact their local Red Cross chapter to find out when full CPR and first aid classes are offered at other times.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, March 19th, as we learn essential life-saving skills!

How do I register?

You can register online or you may also contact Cynthia Gonzalez at (214) 678-4816 or cgonzalez@redcrossdallas.org.

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