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Resolve to be Red Cross Ready in 2013

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January 15, 2013
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Already feeling shaky about the New Year’s resolutions you made in the wee hours of January 1st to friends and family who will never hold you to them? Not keeping those dates with the treadmill? The Red Cross has a list of easy resolutions to keep. We promise that following through on the list below will make you a healthier, happier, safer and more effective member of your community.

We challenge you to resolve to be Red Cross Ready. There are several ways to be Red Cross Ready, and these are some of the top ten. Even though the year has already started it’s never too late.

  1.    Make an Emergency Kit

This is important and can make an enormous difference for your household. Get other family members involved and use the list on the Red Cross website to guide the process.

2.      Download Red Cross Apps

The Red Cross’s new Hurricane App is incredibly useful and comforting. I loved having all that important information on my phone when Sandy hit Philadelphia in November. The download takes 30 seconds and we have several apps with a wealth of information. Check us out!

3.      Become a Red Cross Volunteer

There is nothing more rewarding that helping others in need. Enough said.

4.      Learn CPR

It usually takes a single day to get your certification. Not really much time when you think about what you are learning to do. Imagine having the ability to save a life in a medical emergency. Is that a worthwhile skill? You bet.

5.      Make sure there are working smoke detectors in the house

Our area has lost four people since January 1st to home fires where no working smoke detectors were found. Interviews with neighbors in the wake of these fires revealed that those who died were valued elderly members of their communities who had been living in their houses for decades. The solution is to care more for one another. Check your own smoke detectors. Help your neighbors check theirs.

6.      Talk with family and make an emergency plan

Talk about escaping your home during a fire. Designate a meeting place on the outside. Talk about what to do if you are asked to evacuate during a hurricane or flood. Having a plan relieves anxiety and will serve you well when confronted with a real disaster scenario.

7.      Know your region and what types of natural disaster may occur

This is a simple as knowing what to prepare for. For instance, if you know you are in a flood zone, you can prepare for evacuation.

8.      Inform others of being Red Cross Ready

Again, care for your neighbors. Encourage your neighbors to visit the Red Cross website. The more people prepared for a potential disaster, the stronger the community as a whole.

9.      Attend a Red Cross training class

We can help you learn to be a fantastic lifeguard, an excellent babysitter, an outstanding caregiver, a skilled nurse’s aid and a strong swimmer among other useful skills. Check it out!

10.  Give Blood

This involves lying down in a relaxed state for around 45 minutes. Anyone feeling capable of that?

– Posted by Jennifer Ingram and Sarah Peterson

Drinking water to beat dehydration

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June 29, 2012
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I must admit that “drinking water” does not have the same appeal or quality taste as say an ice tea, a kiwi- strawberry fruit drink, or a soda but during the summer months, even as the forecast constantly changes from one day to the next, one of the best drinks to have to stay cool and avoid dehydration is water. I know it may seem at first unnecessary to remind someone to drink more water when the heat rises or before they reach the point of becoming thirsty, but the simple truth of the matter is that by the time you are becoming thirsty, you are already in route to becoming dehydrated. Our bodies are made up of water but can’t regenerate a new water supply on its own. According to The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, we need to drink at least 48 ounces of water per day to replace the water we lose naturally.

Dehydration can result in that general feeling of malaise with varying symptoms such as dry mouth, dry eyes, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, irritation, trouble with concentration, and cramps. Children are even more at risk, as their physical activity and play increases during the summer. According to a book called Nutrition for Life, “children adapt less efficiently than adults to hot weather and are more vulnerable to heat. They produce more body heat than adults but sweat less and therefore take longer to change their body temperature. In addition, children’s thirst mechanism is not as fully developed as that of adults and they may not express the need to drink and should be encouraged to drink water before, during, and after exercise to prevent dehydration and heat stroke.”

When it comes to staying cool, drinking more water does not create a placebo effect. It actually does help keep our body’s temperature balanced by allowing us to sweat when we are hot, preventing us from overheating. Contrary to what our appearance looks like when we perspire, you know our clothes clinging to our skin, our shirts feeling more like a wet rag than a shirt, sweat is keeping our internal temperature from going up to potentially dangerous levels. On a hot day we desperately need water to sweat. Sweat is our own body’s cooling system. I can’t promise you’ll look and feel your best when you start to sweat but at least you’ll know you’re beating dehydration when you are drinking more water.

- Jabril Redmond, guest blogger, American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania

Practicing What we Preach

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June 22, 2012
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You hear us all the time talking about the importance of being prepared for an emergency. We pound that message into your head just about every opportunity we get. I realize, it may seem excessive. Maybe, maybe not. But let me tell you, being the person who helps deliver those messages, repetition sure came in handy for me last night.

You see in the midst of a three day heat wave, the power in my house went out. A transformer down the street blew and our entire block was without any power. No lights. No TV. No A/C on the hottest night of the year. But other than it being an inconvenience, there wasn’t much concern. We knew what to do. I had my trusty Red Cross preparedness kit right by the door. I put it there so I knew exactly where I could find it so I wouldn’t be wandering around in the dark looking for the flashlight that was inside.

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I also knew where we would go if the power was out for a long time and it got too hot to stay in the house. Having a plan for where to go is critical to every emergency plan.

I was lucky enough to have my smartphone and a laptop with lots of battery power. So I did what any Red Cross communicator does in a situation like that, I tweeted and recorded a video (below). I figured, this was a good chance to put into practice what the Red Cross preaches.

In the end, it wasn’t a major emergency. It was barely even a minor one. Thankfully, by midnight, the power was back on and we never had to leave the house. The whole matter turned out to be a drill of sorts in case there is a major emergency, like the tornado warnings that had my family huddled in a corner in the dark during the height of Hurricane Irene last summer. Or the blizzard two years ago that also knocked out power and we couldn’t go anywhere.

You just never know when the advice the Red Cross gives you about being prepared will be useful. So take a few minutes to review Red Cross preparedness information when you’re safe and sound. And be sure to refresh yourself every few months. That way, if there is an emergency, you’ll be ready.

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