Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio, it's 8.15, happy to be joined this morning by Michael Tedesco from the American Red Cross here locally, Michael good morning, how are you?
Michael Tedesco: Good morning Paul, I'm doing great, how are you?
Paul Szmal: We are doing great and we're half way through the National Red Cross Month.
Michael Tedesco: Yeah, hard to believe but when you look outside at night now you realize how quickly time is changing, we're getting more daylight, but yes we absolutely are at the midpoint of March which more than 80 years ago President Roosevelt, FDR, established as Red Cross Month to kind of celebrate and commemorate what the Red Cross has done in the communities.
Paul Szmal: Now just a little background in terms of what the Red Cross can do for a community, during 2024 spurred on by some extreme weather events, the Red Cross responded to 24 disasters that each caused more than a billion dollars in damage and then that number last year was even higher.
Michael Tedesco: Well yeah, actually the year previous in 2023 there were 28 billion dollar disasters, so that's just evidence of the trend that we're seeing where we used to go weeks or months between disasters of that magnitude, now often it's days or just a week or two when we bounce from one disaster to another and we've certainly seen it this past fall with hurricanes Helene, Milton, the California wildfires and now flooding in Kentucky where we still have volunteers down there helping out, so it's just become a regular event unfortunately.
Paul Szmal: And one thing that people may not think about with these disasters is that that has a significant effect on blood donations.
Michael Tedesco: It does, I mean in the northeast it's not unusual for us to have cancellations of blood drives due to winter weather, but in other parts of the country where blood donation is not interrupted, it's been interrupted over the past couple years much too frequently, so that has led to some dips in the national supply which is why the month of March is also important to remember. It's a good time to give blood if you're a donor and if you've never considered it before, you know, give it some thought this time.
Paul Szmal: And there's some additional incentives being offered to donate blood.
Michael Tedesco: Sure, we do have regular incentives thanks to some generous sponsors. The month of March we have a $10 Amazon gift card that'll be distributed by email to anyone who comes to present blood, but more importantly we have the added benefit of doing some A1C testing for those who successfully are able to donate blood. So of course that measures or gives indication of diabetes or pre-diabetes and unfortunately one in 10 people are at that stage throughout our country. So it's a really important health test that we're providing obviously free of charge to people who are able to donate blood.
Paul Szmal: And we should mention at this point too that just because you may wind up with pre-diabetes or diabetes stage 1 or stage 2 or type 1 or type 2 I should say, that doesn't preclude you from being able to donate.
Michael Tedesco: No it does not and actually another important point to get out is I know when people are getting some blood tests done, ordered by their primary care doctors, some require fasting. If you're interested in knowing what your A1C level is through what we're providing you do not have to fast. So it's important we always encourage people to you know have a nutritious meal or snack prior to donating blood. So we don't want to see people thinking they have to fast when they come in to donate.
Paul Szmal: And one of the things about having this A1 screening as you mentioned that nearly a quarter of people don't even know they have diabetes. In terms of pre-diabetes that number bumps up to 80 percent of people are unaware that they have it. So donating blood and getting the screening while you're in the process of going through the donation screening is beneficial information for your health.
Michael Tedesco: Absolutely and I've had close friends, family members who had no clue at all that they may be in danger of you know reaching a diabetic level and only to find that you know they are on that path to pre-diabetes and it gives you a really early intervention to enable you to stay healthy and avoid some of the complications if that disease progresses.
Paul Szmal: Michael Tedesco from the American Red Cross joining us here on FLX Morning. Of course one of the other ways that you can help out the Red Cross is by becoming a volunteer.
Michael Tedesco: Absolutely that's probably one of the easiest and honestly most needed commodity right now. I mentioned a number of disasters we respond to but we've got volunteer, volunteers rather, in roles every day that are pretty routine like transporting blood between collection centers and our processing facility in West Henrietta and then transporting finished product to the hospitals in the region. So transportation specialists are in need. What we call DAT or disaster action team members who are the folks who very compassionately leave their homes during the night to assist a family who's experienced a home fire, offer them some support, some resources to get them back on their feet.
So when you consider our region is 27 counties and the fact that we only have approximately 40 paid staff members to to carry out our mission in in those counties the volunteer workforce that we are so blessed to have is really the lifeblood of what we do. So we always are looking for additional volunteers. Also should mention just 13 days away is American Red Cross giving day that'll happen this coming well not this coming Wednesday but the following Wednesday March the 26th.
Paul Szmal: Right yeah it's the old adage you know time talent treasure so if if you can't give blood if you can't volunteer there is a way you can support the Red Cross through a financial donation and every bit helps. If you're able to give ten dollars that's still going to have an impact and again stepping back and looking what we what we were doing in the community both locally, regionally, nationally there's tremendous expense involved moving supplies from location to location, procuring things that a family that's experienced a home fire might need like money for short-term rent or lodging, replacement of clothing. So those all come at an expense and you know we're we're not a manufacturing industry that has anything to sell so the support of our generous community members who believe in our mission is is really helpful to us.
Michael Tedesco: And this is a great way if you're unable to give blood to be able to help support the Red Cross too.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely so if you want to make a financial gift giving day is March 26th but you certainly don't have to wait until then. You can certainly you can go to our website at www.redcross.org and you'll see a pretty easy path to follow to make a gift or to volunteer for that matter. So anyway you want to support us there's a way to do that and it goes beyond supplying blood and responding to disasters. What people may not know is that we have a really robust program for our active and retired military members and their families. So again those are services we provide it takes some resources to provide those so we serve you know thousands of veterans and active military family of families each year throughout our region so you're you're supporting a really good cause.
Michael Tedesco: Michael Tedesco from the America Red Cross as always sir thank you for joining us.
Paul Szmal: Well we appreciate the opportunity to talk to you Paul and all the members of your listening audience so we appreciate it and happy March. It is 8 25 on FLX morning.
