American Red Cross

Prior to the First World War, the Red Cross introduced its first aid, water safety, and public health nursing programs. With the outbreak of war, the organization experienced phenomenal growth. The number of local chapters jumped from 107 in 1914 to 3,864 in 1918 and membership grew from 17,000 to over 20 million adult and 11 million Junior Red Cross members. The public contributed $400 million in funds and material to support Red Cross programs, including those for American and Allied forces and civilian refugees. The Red Cross staffed hospitals and ambulance companies and recruited 20,000 registered nurses to serve the military. Additional Red Cross nurses came forward to combat the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.

The Red Cross

When the United States declared war against Germany, the American Red Cross found itself embarking on the journey that would transform it almost overnight into the large and important influential organization it is today. As the public’s patriotic spirits soared in the early days of the war, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, as honorary chairman of the Red Cross, urged his fellow citizens to put their energies to work helping the Red Cross meet the needs of the thousands of young men joining the Allied forces on the battlefields of Europe.

In those early days, Red Cross national headquarters reeled under the demands of the national war effort. Communities flooded the headquarters with requests to establish local chapters. Needs grew much faster than the infrastructures to support them and the situation was described as “chaotic.” In May 1917, President Wilson appointed a War Council to direct the Red Cross and selected Henry P. Davison, a successful New York banker, as the council’s volunteer chairman.

Under Davison’s leadership, the Red Cross accomplished the growth necessary to meet the challenges of a world war. Prominent volunteers from the banking and business communities took up key leadership positions. The organization mobilized some 8 million volunteers who were assigned to service corps at Red Cross chapters (see list below). By the war’s end, nearly one-third of the U.S. population was either a donor to the Red Cross or serving as a volunteer. In all, 20 million adults and 11 million youth claimed membership in the American Red Cross and more than 8 million adults were volunteer workers.

Red Cross website   http://www.redcross.org/about-us/history/red-cross-american-history/WWI

While the major focus was on the war effort, the Red Cross also provided services to civilians at home. Mostly this took the form of nursing activities and emergency response to natural disasters. In late 1918, however, the Red Cross met a major challenge on the home front. Fostered by wartime conditions, an influenza pandemic hit the United States and most of the rest of the world. It claimed an estimated 22 million lives worldwide and U.S. deaths were believed to reach 500,000. The Red Cross worked as an active auxiliary of the U.S. Public Health Service providing nurses and motor corps members, in particular, to assist the sick and dying until the pandemic died out in 1919.

Nursing Service (1909). Already established as an important branch of the Red Cross before the war, the Nursing Service greatly expanded with the coming of hostilities. Its principal task became to provide trained nurses for the U.S. Army and Navy. The Service enrolled 23,822 Red Cross nurses during the war. Of these, 19,931 were assigned to active duty with the Army, Navy, U.S. Public Health Service, and the Red Cross overseas. The Red Cross also enrolled and trained nurses’ aides to help make up for the shortage of nurses on the home front due to the war effort. Many Red Cross nurses and nurses’ aides were enlisted in the battle against the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Hospital Service (1916). Many of the Red Cross nurses and well over 2,000 nurse’s aides, physicians, and dietitians served in military and veterans hospitals. The Hospital Service also secured trained medical and psychiatric social workers to help veterans with recoveries and to assist them make the adjustment back to civilian life that many found difficult to accomplish.

Hospital and Recreation Corps (1918). This Corps began at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. where women volunteers acted as hostesses and provided recreational services to patients, most of whom were war veterans. The women wore gray dresses and veils as uniforms and the soldiers affectionately called them “the gray ladies,” the name by which they became officially known after World War II. During World War I, the service quickly spread beyond Walter Reed to both military and civilian hospitals throughout the United States.

Motor Service (1917). The Red Cross Motor Service provided transportation support to canteens, military hospitals, and camps, and was involved in the campaign against the influenza outbreak of 1918. The Service consisted almost entirely of women volunteers, most of whom used their own cars. Many enrolled in auto mechanics classes in order to be able to make repairs on their cars whenever needed. By war’s end, there were over 12,000 Motor Corps workers who had clocked a total of more than 3.5 million miles of service on America’s roads.

LOCAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Red Cross Festival – provided by the Appleton Social Club – held on the lawn at Appleton Store to benefit the Red Cross work.  Ice cream, candies, bananas, peanuts, cakes and fancy articles for sale.

netted $44.50, placed in the Elkton Red Cross treasury to be used in helping to provide and furnish Comfort Bags for our boys of Company E.

Appleton Does its Bit

“Speakers from Elkton will address the Appleton Social Club and the people of the community on the needs and the Work of the Red Cross showing how all can do their bit.”

“The Red Cross workers of this county have started a campaign to collect one thousand Christmas packages to be sent to the boys from this county now in the U.S. Army service.  It is hoped to have shipments ready along about the first of December.”