Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs- House

Shin ten thirteen representive wing you are recognized thank you madam chair with the chairs permission could I please bring up Laurie Arnold to come and present with me yes. Please introduce yourself to the committee. My name is. Just put to words yourself a little bit my name is Laurie Arnold's the executive director for the greater Arkansas chapter of the red cross. Thank you manager but thank you committee marches red cross month and there has been a lot of activity over the last twelve months by a lot of people but the red cross has certainly been tested with the COVID nineteen pandemic that we have all gone through and every March we under the red cross but this March especially so I think it's appropriate and that we do so and I would just like to ask. Of the miss Arnold if she could just sure just a little bit about what the red cross is done over the past twelve months here in Arkansas. The mission of the American red cross is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of our volunteers and the generosity of our donors so last year in a year like no other volunteers from Arkansas continue to step up to the need even in spite of COVID nineteen to respond to months of relentless hurricanes wildfires and extreme weather events throughout the country all while continuing to support our own communities here in Arkansas through home fires and other disasters that happened. These responses were a combination of remote assistance and in person assistance following CDC guidelines to ensure that no one facing disaster was left without help last year because of the pandemic. When the country faced a severe blood shortage due to blood drives being canceled related to covid our Kansans rolled up their sleeves and gave blood platelets and convalescent plasma resulting in nearly seventeen thousand five hundred. Units of blood products. Volunteers ball ever truly supported our servicemen and women veterans and their families through emergency communication assistance and other critical services and we adjusted the structure of our training and certification courses to allow people to continue getting trained in life saving skills like CPR per state in AD which we know are critical skills in times of emergency so all of this work is possible because of the power of our volunteers and the generosity of our donors in in March we like to thank all of our volunteers and donors for all the work they've done especially this past year when the circumstances were so difficult. So thank you very much for taking part in helping spread the awareness the red cross the path of that do you. I would just like to close by saying that I have personally had the opportunity to work with the red cross both the individually and through my church we have a wonderful efforts that are going on in our central Arkansas a region with the rest red cross with miss Arnold and we're in good hands and we feel like we'll be in good hands as we move forward into whatever happens next year. Thank you Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak for or against this resolution. Seeing nine are there any questions by the committee. Representative where you close for your resolution close for the resolution thank you Committee what's the well we have a motion do pass representative McElroy all in favor say aye. Opposed say no. The resolution passes thank you thank you for your testimony thank you Committee. Committee we're going to be passing over the other resolution that was on the agenda will hear that at a later time. Correct.