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 While the American Red Cross is best known for swooping in to help people in distress, the organization’s St. Louis Area Chapter is finding many of the people it seeks to help standing on the agency’s own doorstep.
This week, the chapter has assisted about 50 families totaling some 180 people who came to its Creve Coeur complex for help with food, clothing or medical needs, said Stephen Hall, a spokesman for the area Red Cross chapter.
“We’ve been meeting with families who have evacuated from the New Orleans area,” Hall said. “Each case is different. Some people need places to stay. Some people need assistance with food or clothing. Our caseworkers sit down with them on a case-by-case basis, and then we provide whatever assistance we can.”
Hall said that nearly all who have come to the agency’s facility at 10195 Corporate Square came to the St. Louis area to stay with loved ones or friends. They aren’t in need of places to stay. Rather, they request help with food, clothing and medical issues such as access to prescription medications and eye glasses, Hall said.
For those who are homeless, the Red Cross helps direct them to shelter, he said.
But one of those displaced by the storm showed up at the complex not for help, but to help. Hall said a woman from New Orleans who is staying with her sister in the area came to the office Thursday to volunteer.
“She said, ‘While I’m here, I want to help out however I can.’ So she worked our phone bank this morning,” Hall said.
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