Each year since President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the trend in 1943, the president has proclaimed March to be Red Cross Month. This year, Tuscaloosa is taking full advantage of the opportunity to celebrate.
“March is all about Red Cross Awareness,” said Bev Leigh III, community executive director of the American Red Cross West Alabama Chapter. “We want the community to know more about what it is we do to help in case of disasters and to help avoid disasters if possible.”
Leigh said the national humanitarian organization’s four primary objectives are blood collection, military assistance, health and safety education and disaster relief.
To promote awareness of these objectives and the role the Red Cross plays in our society, UA public relations professor and Red Cross volunteer Suzanne Horsley has tasked her APR 433 Public Relations Campaigns class to help with designing and implementing a multifaceted publicity strategy, which includes informing the community and recognizing volunteers for the organization.
“We’re all really excited to help out with Red Cross Month,” said Katie Kallam, a senior majoring in public relations and Spanish and an APR 433 pupil. “It gives us hands-on experience in working for an actual client, and we’re providing advertising services for the Red Cross, which is a nonprofit. It’s really a great relationship for everyone involved.”
Horsley said one of the campaign’s most important goals is publicly recognizing and expressing appreciation for the efforts of Red Cross volunteers throughout Alabama and the nation.
“There are volunteers here in Tuscaloosa and West Alabama who have spent countless hours helping out the community, not only during the tornado last year, but just doing the little things every day,” Horsley said.
The West Alabama Chapter is hosting a picnic cookout on Saturday, March 24 to celebrate area volunteers.
“We’re going to honor all of our volunteers and individually recognize those that really stepped up and were cavalier in their efforts to help out,” Leigh said.
Horsley said the class has also been composing a book entitled “A Common Thread,” set for a March release. The publication, which Leigh described as “a very moving document,” will feature pictures, letters and personal testimonies from volunteers and community members affected by the organization, including quotes from head football coach Nick Saban, men’s basketball coach Anthony Grant and women’s gymnastic coach Sarah Patterson. All proceeds from its sale will be donated to the West Alabama Red Cross.
Leigh feels this March holds special significance for appreciation and awareness of the Red Cross in West Alabama, as it represents the first Red Cross Month following volunteers’ response to the disastrous tornadoes of April 2011.
“I am very proud of the amazing response of our meager staff of four here in the office and hundreds of volunteers across the counties of West Alabama in responding to the events in April,” Leigh said. “It is an incredibly moving experience to watch so many volunteers joining hands to help out the community.”
Following the destruction of its building on April 27, the Red Cross transferred its Tuscaloosa headquarters to a temporary location in University Mall, but Leigh said the transition to a new permanent residence is underway.
“We’re aggressively marketing the sale of our old lot, and we plan to take the equity from that sale to invest in a new facility,” Leigh said.
Over the past year, the community has displayed considerable interest in investing in the Red Cross. Over the course of what Leigh deemed the organization’s “perpetual treadmill of raising funds to accomplish our mission,” the West Alabama Chapter has already replaced the approximately $16 million it spent financing tornado recovery, and all the money came from citizen donations.
“It all comes down to the generosity of friends and neighbors,” Leigh said.
