Helping people, alleviating human suffering.
That is what the American Red Cross Holmes County Chapter is all about.
Helping those who help others.
That is what the Holmes County Red Cross Chapter Auction embodies when countless individuals volunteer.
When the 19th annual Holmes County Red Cross Auction took place on Saturday, June 30 in Mt. Hope, it was a celebration of people helping people.
Unlike many national organizations, American Red Cross chapters across the United States must become self-sufficient, meaning that they have to raise funds on their own to survive.
Thus, the annual Red Cross auction has become instrumental in creating the funding necessary for the local organization to continue meeting the needs of crisis victims county-wide.
We have no additional funding from the state or federal sources in any way, so to keep our Red Cross in Holmes County and working for Holmes County people, we have to get the funding ourselves, and if we would lose this chapter due to a lack of funds, we would not get it back, said Pat Lang, executive director for American Red Cross Holmes County Chapter.
As for the money raised at the auction, Lang said that it accounts for approximately 75 percent of all of the expenditures accrued throughout any given year for the Red Cross local chapter.
The fact that everyone working at the auction is doing so as a volunteer, including Pat and her husband, Larry, who serves as the Red Cross Holmes County Chapter assistant director, means that every cent of the money raised through the auction remains in Holmes County, where it has been put to use in so many ways.
While the Red Cross is many times seen as the organization that harvests blood during blood drives, the local chapter spends most of its funds meeting the needs of families who have experienced disasters, from natural disasters like flooding and the ice storm, to fires and accidents.
I tell Larry that I am still educating people about all that we do here in Holmes County through Red Cross, even though we have been here for what seems like forever, said Pat Lang with a laugh. People still come up to me and talk about how they thought Red Cross was just blood services. The fact is that we do so much more than that.
Lang said that in truth, while the Holmes County Chapter does share the same logo as the American Red Cross entities that provide blood drives, the two organizations operate on a completely separate level.
They are biomedical, so they do the blood work end of it, and we are a chapter, so we do perform completely different functions, said Lang. We support blood services, and were there for them, but we do some very different things.
Since 1993, the Langs have been doing a lot of very different things through the Red Cross, where they do not accept a penny for their incredibly active and vital roles within the community here in Holmes County.
The Langs took over a struggling chapter two decades ago, and even with Larry struggling with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), they continue to serve the county faithfully in their role as the Red Cross directors.
It was actually Larry who came up with the idea of an auction to raise money for the chapter nearly two decades ago, and that first auction raised around $2,000.
Since then it has grown quite a bit, earning close to $50,000 annually, now in its 19th year.
This gets us through the year unless we have something substantial like the ice storms, said Pat Lang. But weve had suppers and a lot more to help us meet our needs.
While the Langs are the backbone of the organization, Pat Lang makes no bones about the people who are directly responsible for the income for the local Red Cross chapter.
This community, said Lang. What an amazing group of people. They all get together and help pull this off every year. Its because of them that we are able to do what we do. Im never in fear of what we will have to do if we ever run out, because I know that the people in Holmes County will be there for us.
The people certainly come through each year, donating some pretty impressive items, including new furniture, quilts, household items and much more, all of which are donated to the Red Cross auction.
People just want to help, said Lang. We are just the go-between. The only reason we can go out and help is because they are out there caring enough to be involved with this auction. I love this county.
I wish Holmes County would never need our services. I wish we would never have to raise one penny for disasters. But it is comforting to have when disasters do arise.
And it is obvious with all of the support from the community, that the people of Holmes County realize exactly how crucial it is to have the American Red Cross ready and willing when disasters do occur.
