So today I would like to start saying that American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the first of an emergency by mobilizing the power of volunteers and generosity of donors.
That is the American Red Cross mission. We are one American Red Cross and anywhere in the country that you go, we will provide the same services to our communities. We impact lives every single day.
Everybody can see this. Yes. So here we have a a small numbers that we will you know just for general information not for you I'm not going to run any test at the end of the
presentation so no go no worries but we help 2400 people across the country they are assisted by the American Red Cross every single day
in different forms. We go to home fires. I'm the home fire campaign officer. I run that program in the in the region. We go to a disaster, natural disaster,
man-made disasters, wars. We do all of that. We do training. Yes. >> Question. So, how do you get in natural disaster? >> Um, you're jumping before I'm going to
I'm going to get in that part in the presentation and at the end of the presentation I'm going to answer all your questions. So yes, we do to a small disaster and I'm going to give you an answer but lend yes please.
So we so we have an idea here all the disasters that we attend there are different weights of disaster we go tornadoes hurricanes flood volcan volcano eruptions all of that all over the country
but responded to large scale disaster is our mission is for what the people know us the best. So we do a big impact in our state, the state of Massachusetts.
And now the next slide, I'm going to show you the territories where six community disaster program managers in the state of Massachusetts. If you are the lucky one that lives in the yellow portion, you are with Maria right here,
this lady. And if I am not mistaken, Halifax is right there. So that being said, my colleagues will provide the same services that I do. If you have families
in Springfield, if you have family in um Gloucester, anywhere we provide the same services in the state of Massachusetts, we harness the power of volunteers. American Red Cross runs mostly on
volunteers. 90% of our workforce is by volunteers. So I thanks my volunteers every single minute they can give us to us. We focus in vulnerable communities,
people that need us the most. We help everybody regardless income, age, religion, gender, sexual, sexual orientation, all of them. We really help the human being.
We position critical resources every single place. We have um for example the closest storage room that I have here is in Kingston.
If you ever drive behind a Kingston fire station in the back of the fire station, you are going to see a Red Cross trailer. That trailer is ready to deploy with supplies to host a shelter
for 100 people. We have Cats. We have blankets. We have a durable medical equipment in that trailer ready to be deployed in the region. I have one I have another
one in Plymouth in the fire department. So, we position resources in the community ready to assist communities. And now you're going every time that you're driving, oh, a red cross. A red cross. You're going to see
it now. Oh, part of of our mission is when we respond to large disasters, we feed people and we partner with different organization na in national level like a Salvation Army, the South Baptist
Church, the World Kitchen. We worked together and we delivered food to the people that needed the most. We provide relief supplies after the disaster hits.
We provide elements so people can start the recovery process. Um we work we cannot do it by ourself that'll be extremely we need you know
what they say they take a village for recovery takes a village too. Everyone appoint different levels of expertise and resources to the recovery process.
The biomedical part of our mission, everybody said, "Oh, the American Red Cross get blood." Yes, we ask for blood. Why? Because blood is the only element with all the technology
that we have today. in the world. We cannot make it artificial. We have one human being blood to help another human being. And only a small amount of the population donate
blood in these days. For example, I I attend a meeting yesterday. We are not short at of blood. Why? Because cold weather and disaster in the south. How many have family in Florida and
they're cons and they they say it's so cold here. I don't know why I'm here. I should be in Massachusetts because it snowed there two days ago and the and they're dealing with the frozen iguanas. So
training services, we provide training to the community. In my line of work, we do free trainings. I train communities for free. I don't charge. But another part of the Red Cross provides certifications
like a if you are a nurse and you need to be certified, you we have we offer those certifications but the community need to be trained. I said in my world not
everybody need to be certified to be CPR. No one needs that certification because you have to pay and you have to keep up. You have to renew it every two years. But everybody in the community needs to know the skill and the
technique how to provide CPR in case of an emergency. None of you, not everybody need that certificate, but I I will love to teach you how to do handsonly CPR because
everybody needs to know. Everybody services to the armed forces. This is a a line of my work that I didn't know that we provide service to the armed forces and the Red Cross is there to
help those deployed loved ones to get in touch back in their home. For example, now we have deploy people in different parts of the world, the army, and we contact, we help them, we assist them, we provide care packages
for them. What do we do? Preparnesses. Preparedness because disaster happens. Sadly, they happen every single day. And we do all kind of responses. We do a small responses, big responses. We help
everybody. And like I said, when I go to a fire, I I'm glad to be there because we met I met people in the worst day of their lives. When you go through a fire, I don't wish anybody,
you know, a fire lost everything in five minutes. It's the worst day of their life. We are there with hope, a warm blanket, and someone to hold your hand. It's not a fire a fire chief today, but
I say fire chief. My job is not to put down the fire. That is your job. Your job is to take care of that house. Say whatever is left for that house. My job here is to take care of the people
affected by that fire. If you see a fire in the community and you don't see and you you see your neighbor is hurting and your neighbor is going to be displaced and they don't have a place to leave, call the Red Cross. We'll be there within within two hours. Anybody can
call the Red Cross. 1800 Red Cross. cannot be easier than that. Anybody can activate the Red Cross for a home fire, for a disaster. And I told the chiefs every single time, if I know it's a fire
in your town and I don't hear from you, you are going to hear hear from me. I'm going to call you and I'm going to ask you, how is that family doing? Do they need assistant? Do they need anything? So, I have too
much to say about this. I'm very passionate. So, let me show you a little video. Yeah, we're trying it up. >> Where's your sound button? Let me see. >> I think it's the TV. It's not It's not my video.
>> Sometimes if you have the volume, >> so if you can increase the volume right here, but I thought that was No. >> Oh, there. There it is. Right here. We got it. >> Yeah, we got it. >> I have it
>> here. Pull it up to here. >> Okay, let's try one more time. >> No, it's the TV. to protect you before, during, and after a disaster so that you are ready to take action and we'll practice ways to stay safe.
>> Just by being here, you've taken the first step because when you are prepared, you can protect what's most important to you. Prepare so you can protect yourself, your family, your community.
Ready. Well, we are going to grab Caesar. I can put the the video later is tell you how important is to be prepared for a disaster. And the B Red Cross ready program is a
well-known program that my volunteers teach in the community is be red cross ready. And there are three steps that very clear here is get a kit, be informed, make a plan. So for example,
I'm going to talk about winter storms. when we are in the face of a winter storm. Hey, let's see. So, better weather
tornadoes and many more unexpected hazards are inevitable. and others have started to prepare but don't know what steps to take instruction. information
about gain knowledge and skills. We'll show you what affectur protectant so you can protect yourself, your family, your community. Like I was saying that B Red Cross ready
program is available for anybody in the community. If you want me to come, I can do any hazard, any natural weather disaster in your community. For example, winter storm,
heat waves, hurricanes, er tropical storms, and why not fire prevention. the most important one because we are lucky to live here in Massachusetts. We don't have volcanoes. We don't have
earthquakes. The number one disaster that display pe displace people from their homes here in the state of Massachusetts is home fires. And sadly to say, we have reported the
highest home fire season between November and January compared to before the pandemic. The amount of fires had been incredible. My
team is responded is responding 247 to fires in the community. So, um, like I said, the Red Cross ready. Get a kit, make a plan, be informed, and
please feel free to reach out if you want to get prepared for those. We have the emergency app. It's a really cool app that the American Red Cross has, and I'm going to show you. It's free in the Apple Store and the Google
app. And it's here. You just put your zip code and they're going to send you messages. What is the hazard, the weather condition or fires close to your f to your home? If you are techsavvy, highly recommend it.
Um, handsonly CPR. My team I have um a really good instructor. Like I said, hands only CPR is a skill. It's a technique. I want everybody in the community know that skill. Not everybody
needs the certification like I said before, but everybody needs to know how to do those chest compressions because could be the difference between a life and a disgrace like a someone passing
because of that. Ready rating is more for companies and the home fire campaign and passionate about home fire campaign because I don't want my neighbors be displaced by a fire. The Red Cross has
this cool like a extremely well-known program. We provide free smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors for our neighbors. We have teams. We go out to their houses. We install them. I was
here with my team on Saturday in Oak Point doing a smoke alarms. Next Saturday we are going to be here in Brockton and we move around our territory. So if you're interested, I will be more
than happy to do that. This is carbon monoxide detectors. Like I said, the Red Cross has a a system that we monitor 24/7. If something happen in my community, I will know. If someone goes to the hospital
because have carbon monoxide poisoning, I will know. And like I said, if the fire department doesn't call me, I'm going to call them and say, "Hey, chief, why my pe why my neighbors went to the emergency room because they have high carbon monoxide
poisoning gas in their houses. We provide this for free. We have this different programs too that I don't I just work with um referrals from my fire departments, EMTs.
We have bed shakers for people that is hard of hearings. We have free strobe lights for people there's hard of hearing and we provide it for free. So it's not excuse to not to be prepared.
So the home fire prevention campaign start 10 years ago and the Red Cross took the initiative. It's a national program. It's the same program here that isn't well Massachusetts is a little different because we are the only state that we
provide the carbon monoxides. For example, if you go to, let's say, any states, South Carolina, you are only going to get the smoke alarms. You are not going to get the carbon monoxide. Massachusetts is the
only state that we provide free carbon monoxide for our communities. And since we start the program, we have saved 25,52 lives. How do we know that? Because every time
that I go to a home um home visit and we do this this installations, we take the address. I don't care your age, your income, your status. That is
not an issue for me. But it's a fire happen. Like I said, we will know and we match if we put those smoke alarms in that house. If people got safe and sound out of that
fire for us, that is a life that we save. Because when a fire is declared, you only have two minutes to get out of your house. You have to get out and don't come back. We make tremendous difference. Like I
said, this these numbers are I can tell you what this is for the state of Massachusetts. I can tell you what we do in just my territory. So far, we have reached 162 houses with 35 peoples in
our communities, in our towns. My team goes out and does the installations and I work for the Red Cross, but I also volunteer my weekends for the Red Cross because I believe in this program so much.
This is I'm going to answer your question here. When you go when you see a fire, we have an alert system is called IPM. And we know there is a fire.
In a perfect world, the fire chief will call the Red Cross. Why? Because they have a special number that only for first responder, the fire department
and the police department. a special number is not able to the public and they will have preference. If you go to the one, if you go to the 1800 Red Cross, it's a
community number, but the fire departments and the police department have the special number and I'll be more than happy to provide to those entities. And they have it. The Halifax Fire
Department has it. I visit with the chief and I provide the information. Um, who was aware that it was a huge fire not long ago in Amoris that a building collapsed and those
82 students were displaced. The Red Cross assessed all those students at that fire. We go to large scale fires, a small scares.
Two days ago was a triple decker here in Brockton. Guess who was there at 2:00 in the morning? Extremely cool. I was. And this is a part that I would like to
express more that I like to do recovery because the oldfashioned way was if the family has a place to stay tonight, they don't need the Red Cross. Yes, they need the Red Cross. I want my neighbors to do
to know that recovery start with the first step. We are there to assist people and in the recovery play part we do referrals internal referrals. What happen is a person lost their medicines
in the fire and they need their medicines. If a a bottle of medicines is in a fire, you cannot take those medicines because they are contaminated with harmful chemicals.
So our department of health disaster health services will assist people to recover those medicines. We do case work if you lose your ID,
your driver license, any documents. We help you recover those documents and we have case workers that will guide you how to do it. Like I said, disaster health services, but it's not only the medicines. What
about if I lose my cane, my hearing aids, my dentures, I cannot eat, if I don't have those, you know, that is part of the process. We help to do that. It's not, oh,
the chief will say, oh, they have a place to stay. They don't need the Red Cross. Yes, people need us. They don't know yet, but they they do need us. Disaster mental health, the trauma that caused being a disaster like a home fire
or any disaster is tremendous. We have licensed therapists that will check in with you. They will give you coping skill. They will guide you in your recovery process
in their Massachusetts license and they are experts in disasters because I don't know if I go out and try to find a therapist which is hard and then a therapist with a special you know
a specialist in recovery for disaster. None. We have them all. Disaster spiritual care is another service that we provide and I say oh my god I am not affiliated with any church
doesn't matter everyone has a soul and the first fire that I went sadly the well was a good side and a bad side the good side the family was okay the cats and the dogs died in that fire.
The children were devastated. They were their friends. So we provide a spiritual care is to take care of your soul, not your religion, your heart.
So we provide that. We assess community to recover. Sometimes it's the community they need to get, you know, that push to get recover together. We did it at the Gabriel House. Anyone familiar with the
Gabriel House? A fire that happened in Fall River. Guess who was in that fire? I was assisting those neighbors communities to get to recover
after that fire. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, we help everybody So, we partner and we try. As you can see, I have an accent and I have an accent because I speak English, Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian, a little French. I cover all of that. And sometimes when I go to fires, the relief that I see in the faces when people hear someone is speaking their language
is unbelievable. So very important and we work together. We have partners. We cannot do it by ourself. And how we do how we work with our
communities. Reach out to us. We do presentations, we do trainings, we do the home fire campaign, we do all of that. Just reach out to us and we'll be more than happy to provide you with
um assistance. And here's my contact information. Take a picture. You will have me. If you deal that cell number that is in there, guess what? Right here. I sleep with the cell
phone 24/7. And thank you so much. Oh, you know what? I'm going to put it there if you want to take. And now I'm open to any questions that you will have for me. Um another another
cool things that we do that is cool but is sadly due to a disaster. We reun we get families to get together. For example the ones the plane crash in
Washington DC. Those kids those families a year ago we unifying the families in those cases. We do another services that we provide with the Red Cross and is not well
known. Accidents happen, fires happen and sometimes people die in those incidents or accidents. We provide assistance to the next of Ken and we provide
monetary assistance to that person to be using in anything that the family may need at that moment. The difference with the estate or other um benefits
that with someone dies in a disaster, the benefits go directly to the funeral director. With the Red Cross, we give it to the next ofkin to the family. For example, in the Gabriel house, this
is emotional because happened in my community, there were nine people lost their lives in that fire and one of the families. They didn't have a suit, a nice, you
know, suit to go to the funeral for that loved one. And that money helped them to go through that. One lady was very sad because she didn't have the money to buy flowers. So that money will make the difference and make
you, you know, you will have access to flowers for your loved one. So that is what we do in the Red Cross. We help the community. We help you. I don't want to end with a sad note. I would love to answer your questions.
Any, you know, any things that you may think that we can work together. We do shelter trainings. We do, we partner with local communities to do sound the alarm. Sound alarm is a really cool. It's a really
good program that, for example, um we do have a trailer park here. I don't know if we have neighbors from that trailer park here. Yes. If you want my team to come to your
place and do an inspection, what do you have and what you need, I'll be more than happy to do that. We can select a date in the calendar and they say the Red Cross is going to be here. We call them sound alarm. We bring all our team
and we go in houses and we said, "Oh, okay. If you don't have anything, we'll put it for you." We install them. We install them. It's not like I'm going to give you a device and like a walk away. We install them.
And another thing that we do that I really like to do is to teach young kids children schools. We do all the educational programs in the schools in the area. I love it. I really love it.
services, you know, like going to the home and then changing out or uh installing an alarm systems or uh smoke alarms or um O2 sensors. That's where we could help maybe in in terms of
preventing. So, there's prevention here. There's also in the midst of an emergency situation and we've been there and I've actually been in situations where they have showed uh showed up and we've actually were able to utilize the
gift cards of the monies there to get a person into a um a a a uh hotel for the temporary situation. So, it works in in a lot of different ways. And I wanted people to understand that there's so many aspects to the American Red Cross
and not just the fact that you see them on television when it's in that crisis moment and the you know it's a real extreme situation but they are also preventative and I thought maybe if we get that out to the public maybe we could understand that you know we can
actually have her come and actually I already connected you over to the the park. So, um, for anyone that is in Halifax Mobile Estates, I've actually reached out to the park that you will be doing a presentation at some point there and also perhaps maybe set something up
within the park itself. I mean, it's a large community within there that could utilize the services. And, um, I know our fire, you know, station um, or the fire department, police department as well, they're taxed and they don't have enough resources to support this.
American Red Cross will be able to do that. So when I met her, I said, "You're coming with me." And so because it was so many good aspects that a lot of us didn't know about, I didn't know about it. So it was a nice thing. Thank you so much for coming today. I really
appreciate it. >> I did have one quick question. Someone had mentioned to me she Sorry. Someone had mentioned to me she didn't think that um a good percentage of the donations went directly to the charity
part of the Red Cross that she thought more was spent on administration instead of that. And I you know I can hear your passion and all the programs that you're covering and and I know when we spoke earlier you gave me the information that
it it actually is quite quite a good percentage. >> Yeah. So um >> I am not a financial sorry I am not a fin Oh my god now. Yes.
What happened is um every time that you donate uh x amount for example let's say I going to donate $1 to the red cross that dollar
less than 10% go to the administration part of the process the other one goes to the disaster relief operation and if for example I'm going to use past
events. If you ever donate, for example, you made a check, $20 to help people affected by the Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross will honor that.
And the money only going to go to the relief of the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Nowhere else. No, the wildfires in Hawaii. No, the hurricane Sandy. Just for the
people, the hurricane Katrina. How many knows that a couple of months ago, probably actually was in November, we have this huge flood in Alaska. No, the information didn't get here.
Thousand of people were displaced for their homes due to the high rise of water. It was terrible because those communities live of fishing and hunting
and they are not systems like uh here um I can go to province town taking you know just one highway over there are not those highways you have to go on a boat and then
in a helicopter or a plane and then you have to land on water to get to a village. We were there. The American Red Cross was there helping those folks.
Uh another for example now my colleagues my colleague deployed last night to support the Missouri winter storms. We don't have an like a unlimited pot of
gold. How we do get those funds to provide free smoke alarms. How we get those funds to provide those disaster relief. The two main ways are blood donations.
Yes, the American Red Cross take your blood, but we sell those bloods and those blood products to the hospitals. Why? Because every time that you go to a blood donation center is a certified
phobottomist and a nurse in that center that is taking your blood. They need to get paid. that a specific person they have to transport that blood with a special license because it's a biohazard
product. He needs to be paid or she needs to be paid. So yes, we charge for those. But when we sell those products to big hospitals,
that money allows me to provide a $500 bed taker free of charge for that person that needed. That allows me to provide this devices. Go to Home Depot. Is that a 50 $54 a piece
each of them? If you need five, I'll give you five. If you need two, I'll give you two for free. Uh, this one is around $40. So yes, every every every
dollar that we receive, yes, a small percentage is going to go to administration work because in the I don't know if we have a fi finance persons here in the
money has a cost you need the the bank is going to charge a processing fee. The bank is going to charge you know some wire transf transference and that happen you like it or not.
So yes, some of the money from that dollar we take just a cent and everything goes to the disaster relief fund. I know
in the end we are passionate about it. I think your microphone died. >> Hello. >> Oh, there it is. >> There it is. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Sorry. Yes. such a I don't know how many years 50 years he was holding that
grudge that the Red Cross wasn't able to bring back the husband for the you know born of the new baby. Sorry we didn't have, you know, we didn't get your husband in time. But we do a lot of sorry about that again
because her friends her friend husband came in right right in time. So why didn't they bring him and not mine? So I don't know. We try. We sure try. >> Yes. several towns in southern Massachusetts
and my new chief of staff Tobias Cow used to work for the Red Cross. He then worked for the school system but he worked for the Red Cross and I appreciate all the work you guys. >> Oh my pleasure. Thank you so much. That
remind me we are going to visit you next month in the state house. We are going to be there for the um we have a special event and I'm going to be doing what I most passionate about is talking about
my communities and what I do in the community because like I said I am not shy. If the phone this phone rings at 2 o'clock in the morning and we have a fire I will say will take me 40 minutes to get there.
I'm always on call with the Red Cross because this is the this is the funny part. Disaster don't have a schedule. They don't happen Monday through Friday between 9 and 5. No, that they happen at
the any day, any time. And I see the Christmas tree in this season have been tremendous for disaster and fires. I cannot I cannot tell you. We have respond in an average
about three or four fires a day. Christmas trees, lights. Um, who has a air fryer right now? Everyone has an air fryer. Air fryers. Air fryers in the room. Don't plug the air fryer in the same
plug as the microwave. Why? Both needs a lot of energy. And if you are making the air fryer work at the same time with the microwave, trust me, no good news. If candles, who loves their candles? I
love my candles. I love my candles. Please put it down. If you're like a Get a cover and top, make sure that candle is safe. And don't let your cat knock the candle
out of the table. If you have a cat, don't don't get a candle. It's one or the other. They don't go together. I went to a fire wasn't here in Halifax or wasn't Halifax
maybe. Well, candle too close to the curtains and in two seconds the curtains the you know everything in the apartment. Two seconds. Two seconds and the family
was displaced. And the next next door neighbor too because it was a duplex. So yes, be careful with those candles or you have a cat or a dog or a candle
don't go together because if the dog whacks the candle out of the the table with the tail, bad news. If the cat ps it out, bad news. And we don't know that until it's too late.
I can tell you stories about all day because I have been doing this for a lot of time. But in the in the other part, they get me, you know, they make my heart feel with emotion when I
go there and I help a family. When I have a family and they said, "Thank you. We were unexpected." I know, but I'm happy to be here. I'm very happy to help you in the worst day of your life.
>> For blood donation is not an age limit. >> Okay. So good. Thank you. You're higher, honey. We need blood donor ambassadors. Uh uh we have a blood h blood center here in Kingston.
Yes. And Summer Street. >> Exactly. It's not. Yes. But it's true. Between the blueberry muffin and the stop and chop. It's a blood donation center over there. Uh it's a blood app that I have it in my phone.
And you put your zip code and right there you see it. You put your zip code and it's going to show me all the community. If Halifax want to have a blood
drive here in town, we'll be more than happy. I'll I'll hook you up with my friends in biomets. You have a friend here. I always knows I always know a person if I don't have an answer like hey who knows this
but yes we do we have a we have host uh a blood drive in the carver habitat for humanity facility do you know the when they sell the furniture >> yes >> store
exactly yes exactly So if you we did a blood drive well this is a in a hotel hotel 1620 in Plymouth so we do blood drives in the community if you want to if you're thinking oh we
may have one yes and it's not age the only thing you have to have your iron levels they have to be above a certain number that I cannot remember at this number I think 11 or 13 I will lion if I if I say a
number and you don't have to be taking certain medicines that I don't know the list by memory I because I don't I don't work in biomet but the biomet people knows I don't and if you have high blood pressure like
this lady over here you have a special power you can donate blood in less than five minutes. Yes. Because it goes like a whoosh. Trust me. Yes. High blood pressure is my
superpower. When I got there, like a I'm here. Let's raise the clock. Okay. Less than five minutes. I give you my my word is like a my superpower. I pl I didn't plan to have high blood pressure, but you know, comes handy once in a
while. So, Kingston is your closest one. If you want to host one in the community, let me know. >> Are you able to or other >> we connect to different agencies. I
would love to have that this magic wand I would love to have that this you know superpower that if a house get destroyed by a fire wave it have another house for those residents. But sadly here in
Massachusetts and all over the country, we have a housing crisis. But we connect our displaced families to get enlisting list
to access affordable housing or houses. But if you have I cannot say it you know enough but if you have the possibility to get renters's insurance and homeowner insurance please do it. I
went to a fire in uh what is the town here? Lake Bell generational family. The house was built in 1882 I think. And they had been down the
family until this 84 years old gentleman that the house burned in two seconds because was an old and the wood was so dry and they don't have homeowner insurance
because it's not a requirement. The house, you know, is an option. And I understand for people that live in um fixed income with retirement, it's hard to keep up with those payments.
And it's a gamble. I may need it, I may not need it. But that family was really stressed because they didn't have homeowner insurance. They didn't have what the gentleman and the wife were
sleeping in a old minivan caravan because they didn't have a place to stay. Yes. So it's very important I say you know you have to balance what is important
for you again or the cat or the candle. Which one? I have three cats. No candles. Thank you. information and power outage.
Feel free. Those are >> hold on. Um, hi. I just wanted to say thank you, Maria. Your passion for the Red Cross is so inspiring, and I learned so much today. I had no idea that they did so much. So, thank you.
>> Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me.