A Red Cross Halloween

Halloween is sort of a big deal in our fair city of Asheville. It's no secret that we will take any excuse to play dress up and share a locally brewed cold one with friends. And with Halloween only a few days, we're guessing that you’ve already figured out your costume. But if time has gotten away from you this fall and you still don’t know what you’ll dress up as, here are a few Red Cross-themed costumes I’d recommend.

American Red Cross Nurse (circa 1940)

American Red Cross Volunteer (throw on a Red Cross t-shirt, jeans, and a lanyard and you’ll be all set)

Buddy Blood Drop (Let's be honest. He's a little creepy.)

Now that you’ve gotten your costume squared away, take a moment to review the Red Cross’ Lucky 13 Tips for a safe Halloween. Be sure to wear your Red proudly at one of these local Halloween events!

Trick or treat!

Note: If you choose to dress up in a Red Cross-themed costume, please keep in mind that you’re representing the organization and remember to respect its mission and fundamental principles. Thanks!

The Red Cross Centennial Ball: The Celebration of the Century

If you missed the Red Cross Centennial Ball, you missed the celebration of a century: figuratively and literally. See the photos below.














View the rest of the photos here.

80 Seconds

A woman holds up one of the few items that survived the fire that took her home in Chicago. Photo by Erica Barraca

Did you know that every 60 seconds*…

• More than 168 million emails are sent
• 695,000 status updates and 510,040 comments are published on Facebook
• Google serves more that 694,445 search queries
• More than 13,000 iPhone apps are downloaded
• 6,600 images are published on Flickr
• 600 videos (about 25 hours of content) are uploaded to YouTube

Seems impressive, but here’s another statistic: approximately every 80 seconds someone will lose their home to a fire. That’s more than 63,000 fires a year that Red Cross volunteers across the country will respond to.

October is National Fire Prevention Month, and our friends at the Chicago Red Cross has created a way for you to get a glimpse of what losing some of your cherished photo memories would feel like with their “Every 80 Seconds” campaign. With home fires, “things” can usually be replaced, but precious photos usually cannot. After you go through this, take a moment to make sure your home and family are Red Cross Ready.