The West Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross will hold an awareness event about the health and safety services the chapter offers today from 3-5 p.m. at the Student Recreation Center.

The event is called “Health in your Hands,” and according to West Alabama Chapter reports, the event will be free, although they will accept donations to help with the Red Cross efforts. For every dollar that is donated, 91 cents is put into programming, according to the Red Cross.

At the event, students will be able to see demonstrations of CPR, an automated external defibrillator, babysitting techniques and pet first aid. The Red Cross hopes to have people come out to support this event and to raise awareness about safety situations.

A group of graduating seniors in Susan Horsley’s public relations class decided to take on the West Alabama Chapter as their semester project and offer an assortment of events, according to Bev Leigh III, development director at the West Alabama Chapter of the Red Cross. Throughout the month of March, the graduate students have been offering events for people to get involved.

“We hope to have at least 300 students show up and participate at the Rec Center,” Leigh said. “We are all about education and trying to help the community avoid accidents.”

The West Alabama Chapter of the Red Cross has been around for 60 years. Last year, the chapter responded to 181 disasters in West Alabama, collected more than 2,800 units of blood and helped 1,181 local children get a free community education, according to West Alabama Red Cross reports.

The West Alabama Chapter serves seven counties in Alabama – Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Lamar, Greene, Hale, Sumpter and Pickens counties. This chapter also offers classes for members of the community about health and safety issues. At the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center the Red Cross offers free haircuts, bus passes, clothing and coffee to low-income veterans, according to Red Cross reports.

Sarah McPherson, Health and Safety director at the West Alabama Red Cross, will be doing the demonstrations at the event. There will be some hands-on demonstrations and students will have the opportunity to practice techniques on the dummies the Red Cross provides, Leigh said.

For more information about this event contact the West Alabama Chapter of the Red Cross at 758-3608 or email them at [email protected].

If You Go

What: Health in Your Hands

Where: Student Recreation Center

When: Today from 3 to 5 p.m.