American Red Cross Month, 2020

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 9988 of February 28, 2020

American Red Cross Month, 2020

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For 139 years, the American Red Cross has provided
comfort and support services to ease suffering before,
during, and after emergencies in the United States and
around the world. The American Red Cross provides
shelter, care, and compassion in response to more than
60,000 disasters a year. It also supplies about 40
percent of our Nation's blood products; teaches skills
that save lives; supports our military, veterans, and
their families; and provides international humanitarian
aid to countries in need. During American Red Cross
Month, we thank and honor the selfless volunteers,
dedicated employees, and generous supporters who invest
their time, talent, and resources to provide
compassionate outreach and assistance to so many.

Each year, American Red Cross workers and trained
volunteers respond to a wide range of emergencies, from
natural disasters that destroy entire communities to
home fires that displace individual families. In
response to last year's devastating hurricanes,
wildfires, storms, floods, and earthquakes, the
American Red Cross and its partners opened and
supported emergency shelters for more than 300 days.
During these and other crises, nearly 9,000 American
Red Cross workers--90 percent of whom are volunteers--
left their homes to work in affected areas, providing
refuge, food, relief items, emotional support, recovery
planning, and significant assistance to vulnerable
families in their darkest hours and times of need. In
2019 alone, the American Red Cross also supported
responses to 17 international disasters and
humanitarian crises as a key part of the world's
largest humanitarian network.

Clara Barton, a pioneering nurse from Massachusetts,
founded the American Red Cross out of a desire to
continue providing help and supplies to people in need
following the Civil War. Her words, ``I may be
compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while
our Soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed
and nurse them,'' echo today in the continued
dedication of the American Red Cross to our service
members, veterans, and their families. Today, the
American Red Cross Hero Care Network provides critical
and confidential services to our Armed Forces worldwide
through local, State, and national resources. Last
year, Hero Care Network provided more than 355,000
emergency communication services to nearly 100,000
deployed military members and their families. It is
also the largest provider of free professional
volunteer services to recovering wounded warriors and
their families in military treatment facilities and
hospitals. This network is dedicated to supporting
programs and services that aid families as they
navigate the demands of military life.

Across our great country, about 2,500 hospitals and
other facilities depend on volunteer blood donors to
meet the critical needs of patients. Each year, on
average, the American Red Cross collects more than 4.6
million blood donations and nearly 1 million platelet
donations from more than 2.6 million volunteers. In
2019, donations of more than 6.4 million blood products
helped save and improve the lives of people of all
ages, including accident victims, mothers giving birth,
surgery patients, and those battling cancer and other
life-threatening or altering conditions.

Every day, the American Red Cross serves people
throughout the United States and around the world. Its
lifesaving mission and the indelible mark it leaves
around the world are possible only because of the
devotion of volunteers, the generosity of donors, and
the partnership of community organizations. Together,
they bring critical hope, help, and healing in times of
crisis, despair, and devastation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America and Honorary Chairman of the
American Red Cross, by virtue of the authority vested
in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim March 2020 as American Red
Cross Month. I encourage all Americans to observe this
month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and
activities, and to support the work of the American Red
Cross and their local chapters.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
fourth.