Red Cross Rep Visits North Haven Rotary Prior to Storms

North Haven resident Richard V. Branigan, well known to the North Haven Rotary Club due their informal partnership with him in raising money for children’s charities each spring at the Kids for Kids dance competition, was the club’s guest in his new role as the Chief Program Officer for the American Red Cross in CT and RI just prior to the two recent major storms. He explained some of the inner workings and goals of his new employer, indicating that the Red Cross serves many segments of the population around the globe, offering disaster relief locally, nationally and internationally while remaining a humanitarian organization neutral to politics.

In addition to serving military personnel and their families, they offer educational services such as teaching life saving methods, first aid, and aquatics. Perhaps their best known mission is their collection of blood for transfusions during surgery, as well as disasters. The Connecticut chapter has about 3,000 volunteers and 40 full time staff people. The speaker indicated that several offices in Connecticut were consolidated into one branch in Farmington to provide services for the entire state and Rhode Island from one location. Branigan said that he’s still learning the job, but described some of his personal encounters with people in crisis. Little did he know that major new crises were looming.