Red Cross chapter needs financial resuscitation

The Northwest District of the American Red Cross of Montana is badly in need of advanced life support.

The organization that people turn to the moment disaster strikes can use some financial TLC itself. The Red Cross needs sufficient money and equipment to stay alive.

The local Red Cross needs a minimum of $150,000 annually just to keep its doors open.

"What we do is provide shelter and assistance to people who are victims of disaster," said Gayle Wilhelm, director of the Kalispell Red Cross Service Center, which includes the Flathead Valley and Polson. "We give immediate relief, such as food, clothing and shelter. We are also a clearinghouse through which people move to get the help they need from other agencies."

Wilhelm and programs specialist Cindy Burns are the only salaried employees in the Kalispell office. Everyone else who works there is a volunteer.

"Most of our donations come from individual people in the community," Burns said. "Our issues are closer-to-home issues."

The recent Hurricane Katrina fund raising has been a mixed blessing for the local office.

"It's so wonderful, all this money that's come in for hurricane relief," Wilhelm said. "People here are so generous. Just today, students at Edgerton Elementary School raised $3,882 in pennies for Katrina victims."

To date, $1.2 million in hurricane relief has been raised in Montana. Ninety-one cents of every dollar recently received went to disaster relief.

But what about that closer-to-home factor?

One night several weeks ago, nine people in Kalispell became homeless when their double-wide mobile home burned. The Red Cross was called in and responded immediately to cover their food and shelter needs.

The Red Cross van, however, had broken down. Red Cross employees had to use their own cars to provide assistance to the fire victims.

The Red Cross is there full time for community disaster assistance as well as many additional services. It teaches first aid, CPR and baby-sitting classes; provides disaster-linked mental health counseling; and offers communication links to friends and relatives in areas affected by disasters.

It also trains local volunteers for disaster service. Currently 10 Kalispell-trained volunteers are working in hurricane-devastated Gulf states.

"We're really operating on a bare-bones budget for all of this," Wilhelm said.

But there is some relief in sight for potential donors with the passage of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005.

With this new legislation, individual donors are allowed to give as much as 100 percent of their adjusted gross incomes to charitable organizations and take a deduction on the gifts. The main limitation is the money must be given before Jan. 1.

The tax status of corporate cash donors has improved also, but only for Katrina-related donations.

One recent local Red Cross contributor who wants to remain anonymous donated money to allow the organization to buy a new $5,000 phone system.

"Our phone system was definitely on its last legs by then," Burns said.

Much of the Kalispell equipment could be described in similar terms. But though the machinery may be fragile, volunteer morale is anything but.

Currently, the office has 250 volunteers. This is one-quarter of the total number of Red Cross volunteers in the state.

Reporter George Kingson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at gkingson@dailyinterlake.com.