TERRE HAUTE —
American Red Cross Wabash Valley Chapter will seek to more than double its number of volunteers and obtain 10,000 emergency preparedness handbooks from a $20,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation.
The grant money was presented to the Wabash Valley chapter at its Terre Haute office Thursday from Rick Burger, Duke Energy Indiana west district manager.
“Safety is always important in our business and this effects 13 counties in the west side of the state, from Warren County to Gibson County. This gives us an opportunity to work with the American Red Cross,” Burger said.
“When you go back to Henryville and look at what happened down there [from a tornado], we as a company grew a lot,” Burger said, “and I think the Red Cross did too. We thought we need to help get more volunteers, so if something happens in the west side of the state, we will be better prepared.”
The Wabash Valley chapter currently has 75 disaster volunteers and will seek to add 100 more, said Carol Stevens, executive director of American Red Cross Wabash Valley Chapter.
“One piece of this grant will allow us to go out into rural communities to recruit and train additional people to be volunteers in those communities,” Stevens said.
“One thing that we experience, because we cover such a wide area, is when there is a disaster that is covering multiple locations, we can’t be everywhere at once,” Stevens said. “Our goal is to make as many people as possible … prepared to be the Red Cross and empower them with the information they need and help fund disaster shelter sites and be more self-sufficient when disasters strike.”
Some funds will also provide emergency shelter, food, clothing and critical medications for approximately 100 families.
Handbooks will provide information on different disaster scenarios and provide checklists on how to be prepared, from a flood to tornado to a home fire, Stevens said.
The American Red Cross will seek volunteers in Clay, Daviess, Fountain, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Montgomery, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion, Vigo and Warren counties.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
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