FORD CITY — At age 90, it’s still going strong. The Armstrong County Chapter of the American Red Cross, founded in 1917, marked 90 years of service to the county in April. Red Cross director Karen Fair said t the chapter is currently concentrating its efforts on training volunteers and fundraising. “Thankfully, things have been relatively quiet during the past two years,” Fair said. “We dealt with some flooding last June and we’ve assisted several families who were victims of house fires. We have not had to deal with any major disasters in our area lately, but several of our volunteers did assist with relief efforts after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi. Several members of our Disaster Action Team have volunteered to help at the site of the recent tornado disaster in Greensburg, Kansas.” However, Fair and Armstrong County Chapter board chairman Herman Bertocchi of Kittanning said the local chapter’s Disaster Action Team is ready to go into action the moment a disaster should strike. While some team members may volunteer to help in out-of-state areas, a number of team members prefer to remain in their local areas. “The Disaster Action Team is the basic premise of the Red Cross volunteer program,” Bertocchi said. “In March, 2006, our chapter participated in a Readiness Exercise Evaluation facilitated by national headquarters. It was a three-day evaluation that tested our readiness to respond to any type of disaster. Thanks to the dedication and professionalism of our volunteers we got an outstanding grade.” Fair said the local chapter was well prepared to assist about 50 families in virtually any emergency in its initial response. “Fifty families may seem like a relatively small number when it comes to a wide-spread catastrophe,” she said, “But you have to realize that we live in a small community in a more or less rural area. The Red Cross is so organized that in the event of a wide-spread disaster, we would receive immediate assistance from other Red Cross chapters. “Our first response evaluation was excellent. Being a small community, we simply don’t have the resources or manpower to handle large-scale disasters. No small community does. That’s where cooperation with neighboring chapters that are not affected by a large-scale disaster would come in. “We not only did well on the evaluation, but we got an ‘A-Plus’ for our volunteers’ camaraderie and teamwork. We have some very dedicated people on our team. They’ve had some excellent training, they know what they’re doing, and they have a high degree of commitment to their jobs.” Fair and Bertocchi said that the local chapter is always in need of volunteers. “We need volunteers,” Bertocchi said, “but volunteers need training, and our chapter provides training in a variety of areas such as shelter operations, mass care and feeding, disaster health issues, disaster mental health issues, disaster assessment and other shelter issues. Training is free but takes a commitment from the volunteers. You don’t have to have any special skills to be a volunteer.” He said the Red Cross also offers monthly first aid and CPR classes. Bertocchi said the Armstrong County Chapter is part of the National Incident Management System. The NIMS goal is to coordinate all responsible organizations, local hospitals, county and borough emergency teams, amateur radio communications, and the like, to pool resources in any emergency. Fair attributed much of the local chapter’s preparedness and success to community involvement. “We could not exist without our volunteers,” she said, “and we could not exist without the support of our local community. Our people here have been very generous when it comes to supporting this chapter, but our needs are on-going.” Bertocchi said Red Cross chapters do not receive government support and depend on fund drives to continue operation. “We operate on a very thin budget,” he said. “We are not a government agency therefore we get no government support. Anyone interested should direct donations to our local chapter at 418 Third Ave., Suite 4, Ford City, 16226.” Fair said the chapter also needs blood donors. She said donated blood can be stored for up to 42 days and at this time she said blood stores are “…dangerously low.” She added that information on monthly blood drives may be obtained by calling the chapter at 724-763-2272. Fair said the chapter was headquartered in a small building on Butler Avenue in East Franklin for several decades. Last September, the chapter moved to Ford City. “We have a spacious office and training room,” she said. “Our new office is light and airy and well suited to training classes and routine day-to-day business. We are proud of our 90 years of service to the community and we certainly hope to be here for another 90 years. I think that with dedicated volunteers and continuing community support we’ll reach that goal.”

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---