The American Red Cross
Home History Clara Barton Images Contact			History of The American Red Cross Clara Barton and a group of friends founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881. Barton first heard of the “Red Cross Movement” while visiting Europe following the Civil War. When she returned home, she crusaded for starting a Red Cross society in America. With the outburst of WWI, the organization experienced extraordinary growth. The number of local chapters jumped from 107 in 1914 to 3,864 in 1918 and membership grew from 17,000 to more than 20 million adult and 11 million Junior Red Cross members. The public contributed $400 million in funds and material to support Red Cross programs. World War II called upon the Red Cross to provide extensive services once again to the U.S. military, Allies, and civilian war victims. “It registered more than 104,000 nurses for military service, prepared 27 million packages for American and Allied prisoners of war, and shipped more than 300,000 tons of supplies overseas.” The Red Cross also started a national blood program that collected 13.3 million pints of blood for use by the armed forces. With the conclusion of WWII, the Red Cross introduced its first nationwide blood program. This program is now supplying nearly 50 percent of the blood and blood products in the United States. “The Red Cross also expanded its services into such fields as civil defense, CPR/AED training, HIV/AIDS education, and the provision of emotional care and support to disaster victims and their survivors.” - http://www.redcross.org/