The Lee County Red Cross held a Kick Off for their annual Hero Campaign for the local chapter.  With the recent disaster in Haiti and nationwide money raising efforts for earthquake victims many will redirect money to the National Effort, and by pass the local effort.  Both are important, and I’d offer that it would be a good idea to save some for the home front.  It’s early in the year and the local chapter spends money right at home.  I’ve grabbed the following from the Local Red Cross website, so when it’s time to make a contribution, try to leave some of it at home.  The Publisher of the Opelika Auburn News, Jim Rainey is the chair of this years effort.  Each day, someone in our community is faced with a life threatening emergency. Emergencies come in many forms: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires, heart attacks, choking, drowning, death of a family member, surgery requiring a blood transfusion, or an elderly citizen without heat in the winter. Each day our Red Cross Chapter is helping citizens prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies through life-saving services such as CPR, first aid or water safety; disaster preparedness training; armed forces emergency communications; blood collection and supply; and Project SHARE, which helps pay heating and cooling bills for the elderly and disabled. Currently, the cost to provide Lee County Alabama with the necessary resources to prepare, prevent and respond to emergencies is approximately $1,200 a day. We count on our neighbors in our county for their generosity to help us raise this money. Our local citizens are our every day heroes. From January through March (National Red Cross Month) we approach individuals to be “Heroes for the Red Cross”. A Hero pledges to raise a minimum of $1,000 for local Red Cross programs in our community. “Super Heroes” pledge to raise a minimum of $5,000. As a Hero you not only make a financial commitment, but you make a life-saving commitment. Won’t you join us today and help us save lives in our community?

The Opelika Daily News (no relationship with the OA News) will follow the campaign thru the next few months.  To find out more, you can click the Heroes Ad in the sidebar for more information.