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| For $100, you can give one family a basic kit that will provide a month's supplies. Be there with the Red Cross as we bring hope in the middle of a disaster. |
It was a blistery cold, snowy winter night in February 3, 1991 when my mom had the gumption to host an overnight birthday party for her second-grade girl and five of her friends. My friends and I roller-skated in the basement, played pin-the-tail on the donkey and lots of other games. When it was just about time for cake and ice cream, the cold temperatures mixed with the snow and ice around the electric lines caused the power to go out. We were left in the dark. Of course, all of us girls started screaming and gathering around one another, but my mom was as a cool as a cucumber. She lit the candles on the cake and told us we better hurry up, sing Happy Birthday and eat or the ice cream was going to melt. As an eight-year-old trying to celebrate her birthday with close friends, my hopes of a perfect birthday came crashing down.
When the power went out, the innocence of childhood surrounded me. I was focused on ‘why is this happening on my birthday’, but my mom was focused on ‘how do I keep my daughter and her friends calm and safe’.
I imagine this experience is a small-scale of the hopelessness children and their families feel when disasters strike. While we were able to stay in our house until the electricity came back on in only a few hours, often families are left with no shelter or basic necessities like toilet paper, toothbrush, safe water and warm blankets after a tsunami or mudslide causes massive devastation in a community. That’s where your help is needed. Like my mom was there for me, you can be there for a family who has lost everything and needs immediate help just to make it through the first terrifying hours and days. Simple items like a cooking set are essential to families as they struggle to survive. For $100, you can provide
Emergency Supplies for a Family after a global disaster. The basic kit provides a month’s basic necessities for a family.
There’s lots of other ways you can help support families after a disaster too. We encourage you to check out the 2009
Holiday Giving Guide. Thank you for your support and for helping families around the world rest a little easier after a disaster.
Kimberly
Kimberly Pratt is the Marketing and Communications Specialist for the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter.