To the Editor:

March is Red Cross Month and the American Red Cross is asking you to join us in providing help and hope to people in need.

The Red Cross works tirelessly to help those who need assistance, whether down the street, across the country, or around the world. We respond to disasters, help members of the military, provide blood for those in need and teach lifesaving skills.

When you help with a gift of your time, your blood donation, or your financial gift, you join the Red Cross. We want to thank those supporters whose generosity helps ensure we are able to continue our service to those who need us. Thanks to them, the Red Cross is there when needed most.

In the past seven months, the Northern New York Red Cross responded to 29 local emergencies, assisted 215 military families and trained 3,314 people in lifesaving skills. And, people from this area donated 4,593 units of blood.

Nationally, the Red Cross responds to disasters nearly 200 times every day. The organization provides a round-the-clock link between those in the military and their families, and supplies blood and blood products to approximately 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.

Red Cross Month is a great time for people to join the Red Cross. Please give blood, or sign up to be one of our volunteers. Please take one of our lifesaving training classes. Please give a financial gift.

Please join us, and enable us to continue our work, both here at home, and around the world.

Olga Grant

Branch Manager, Potsdam

American Red Cross of Northern New York