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Newsroom Chapter Blog
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Mar
2
3/2/2010 8:53 AM
 Ah, the Return of Red Cross Month- celebrating our volunteers and donors, remembering our rich history, and of course, my personal favorite- Tuesday Trivia with Lindsey! Every Tuesday during the month of March (our month of blogging) I will be offering a tidbit of Red Cross trivia to you in the morning- giving you a chance to answer throughout the day- before posting the correct answer in the afternoon. So let’s get started- intro cheesy theme song here- Welcome to Tuesday Trivia with Lindsey!! I am your host, Lindsey, and here is your trivia question for the day…
Over the years, when proclaiming March as Red Cross Month, US Presidents both past and present have said a few words about the Red Cross. Below are quotes from Presidents Nixon and Carter.
| "Born of war and raised in adversity, the American Red Cross has evolved many traditions in its universal quest to ease human suffering, but none have served it so durably as its tradition of flexibility."--President Richard M. Nixon, 1970 |
| "I hope all Americans will reflect on the selflessness that has led so many of our neighbors to serve the Red Cross-and their fellow Americans-with their time, their energy, and their love."--President Jimmy Carter, 1977 |
Unbeknownst to them, Presidents Nixon and Carter had another tie to the future of the Red Cross because of a staff member who served in both administrations. Who was the common link between both the Nixon and Carter Administration who would later affect the future of the American Red Cross?
And the answer is… Elizabeth Dole!!!
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Dole began a distinguished government career under not just Nixon and Carter, but five U.S. presidents. Known as a charming perfectionist, her first position was in the White House office of Consumer Affairs in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. In 1971, she entered Richard Nixon's administration as Deputy Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs and from 1974-1979 she was a member of the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In 1983, during Ronald Reagan's administration, she became the first woman to hold the office of Secretary of Transportation. In 1989, she became George Bush's Secretary of Labor. Then in 1991 Dole became the President of the American Red Cross, where she undertook a massive transformation of the organization's Biomedical Services to ensure the safety of its blood supply. She greatly increased financial support for the organization from the corporate world. This allowed the Red Cross, among other things, to expand its Disaster Services Human Resources system, a network of trained disaster relief workers around the country. Wife of the former Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Robert Dole, she retired from the Red Cross in 1999 to explore a presidential bid herself.
Thanks for playing! We’ll see you next week on Tuesday Trivia with Lindsey!!
Lindsey
Lindsey Weber is the Marketing and Communication Associate for the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter.
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