By Bill Phelan

Suburban Journals

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

 

The Jefferson County office of the American Red Cross had a little show and tell Thursday afternoon, inviting area business leaders and dignitaries to an open house.

 

The purpose of the event was to show off the newly renovated Red Cross Service Center at 3880 Jeffco Blvd. and to thank the various businesses and individuals who helped pay for the $40,000 project.

 

Dale Chambers, service center supervisor, described the badly needed renovations and how they will improve Red Cross services.

 

"We expanded our classroom facility and brightened the place up," he said. "We improved the offices of our volunteers so we can do client casework and put in a closed-off storage area, and we also got a washer and dryer so we clean our manikins for our CPR classes, and we got a much nicer disaster team area for access to our trucks."

 

"This simply makes the facility a lot nicer to operate in. We can now have classes going on, casework going on and we can also be doing disaster work all at the same time without bothering anyone in the process."

 

Red Cross officials said private donations accounted for about $11,000 of the total project cost, a fact not lost on Chambers.

 

"The Jefferson County community is a great community," he said. "This community has been very supportive of the Red Cross and that was demonstrated during the recent flooding."

 

St. Louis Area Chapter CEO Joseph C. White was also on hand for the festivities and was impressed with what he saw.

 

"Our primary responsibility is to respond to disasters and we can do that from any number of facilities but we have found that by having service centers, like this one in Jefferson County, we are more effective," White said.

 

"We want our services placed locally in the community so that the people of Jefferson County have access to the Red Cross."

 

"With this expanded facility, we can do more casework for disaster victims, like those from the flooding. Whatever services those folks may need, we have them right here in Jefferson County."

 

Last year, the Red Cross Service Center provided training to more than 8,000 county residents and helped the victims of more than 80 house fires.