From Blood Drives to Disaster Aid Red Cross Mission Continues

UNDATED -- The American Red Cross is known for its blood drives, but they actually do a lot more than that. Spokeswoman Sue Thesenga says they also help with large-scale disaster relief as well as responding when a family loses their home in a fire.

She says 90 percent of their workforce are volunteers and they can always you more helping hands.

We're always looking for people to help whether it's at a blood drive checking people in and taking their temperatures, or maybe a more extended type deployment where we need them most.

Thesenga says the non-profit is not funded by the government and relies on donations to continue their work.

Thesenga says their blood drives have continued with some added precautions like requiring you to make an appointment ahead of time.

That way we can stager arrival times for people and make sure they are social distancing throughout the blood drive experience. We've also required masks, early on we required them. We take everyone's temperature when they arrive at the blood drive, we want to make sure they are fever-free when they come out to donate.

Thesenga says they also set-up disinfecting stations at the blood donation site.

The Red Cross is hosting a virtual event called "Powering the Mission" next Tuesday, March 16th.

March is National Red Cross Month.