Mobile Register (Alabama)

April 2, 2009 Thursday
02 EDITION

A; Pg. 04

528 words

Wal-Mart donates $5 million to Red Cross

Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter will get $76,000 for disaster aid

By RHODA A. PICKETT

Staff Reporter

A $5 million grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation will help 128 American Red Cross chapters around the country - including the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter - offer aid and care in rural areas when disaster strikes, officials announced Wednesday.

The Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter will receive $76,000 from the foundation. The total grant will support chapters in 44 states, officials said during a news conference at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center in downtown Mobile.

The funds will extend the reach of the Red Cross to places that are often isolated during times of disaster, such as hurricanes.

"This is just huge," said Leisle Ewing Mims, executive director of the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter, which serves Mobile, Baldwin, Clarke, Monroe, Washington and Escambia counties.

Nationally, the donation will be used to purchase more than 55,000 blankets and 15,000 cots, provide chapters with nearly 150 shelter trailers and train more than 1,000 Red Cross staff and volunteers.

The Gulf Coast chapter will be able to purchase three trailers for rural areas. They will then be ready to use when a disaster strikes, Mims said.

"That will build partnerships in the community and really make the communities more able to respond," Mims said. "When something big hits here, we have to focus on the coastal response, so we have a challenge getting the resources to the counties that are two hours away from us. This is going to help us build our strength and help them build their strength."

Mims said during Hurricane Gustav in September that there were not enough Red Cross volunteers to work at a Clarke County shelter.

"We had trained the school system to staff the shelter, but we had to send people from here up there to staff the shelter," Mims said. "Three people can't work 24 hours at a shelter. With this grant, we won't have to do that."

The 6-by-12-foot trailers will carry comfort and shelter kits, nurse supplies, blankets and cots and other items needed to operate a shelter filled with 100 people for five days, said Ron Baughman of the Gulf Coast chapter.

"I know what you do for the communities you serve," said Elise Vasquez-Warner, vice president and regional general manager for Wal-Mart stores in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. "It's such a tremendous honor for us to be involved with this. I don't know if there's a better partnership out there."

"Today is a great day for the American Red Cross and for the people we serve," said Joseph Becker, national Red Cross senior vice president for disaster services. "We are gearing up for an active tornado season and preparing for hurricane season and we need to be ready for whatever Mother Nature throws at us."

CUTLINES

MARY HATTLER/Staff Photographer

A Wal-Mart representative presents a check to Red Cross officials Wednesday at the Mobile Convention Center. From left are Leisle Ewing Mims of the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter of the Red Cross, Paige Roberts of the Southeast Mississippi Chapter, Elise Vasquez-Warner of Wal-Mart, and Sheri Frost of the Pensacola Chapter.

May 19, 2009