Who’Ll Help Red Cross?

Biblical disasters are an American Red Cross specialty.

When fires, ice storms and floods ravaged North Idaho, Red Cross shelters filled with cots and food. Sympathetic volunteers sprouted like magic.

Stranded people found the Panhandle chapter of the Red Cross waiting - calm, reliable and efficient. But that comforting touch might not be so close for the next disaster.

The Panhandle chapter “is struggling. It has no money right now for disaster funding,” says Larry Curry, a Red Cross board member from Kellogg. “I just want to get this chapter up on its feet.”

The Red Cross began serving Shoshone, Benewah and Kootenai counties 81 years ago. It has two congressionally mandated jobs - providing disaster relief and providing emergency communications for military families.

But the mandate includes no funding, so the National Red Cross and its chapters rely on local donations and volunteers.

During the 1990s, nearly 1,800 of 3,100 Red Cross chapters nationwide decided to merge their struggling services with healthier chapters and close. The Panhandle chapter wants to survive.

“People don’t realize we do disasters almost every day,” says Andrea Carter, the Panhandle chapter’s director. “Last month, we assisted in 13 family fires.”

Her chapter helped Lea Anne and Jack Modrell and their five children a year ago after fire destroyed their home near Calder. It gave the family $800 for new clothes and shoes, vouchers for food and personal and household items. It also replaced the family’s lost eyeglasses.

“I can’t believe they helped out so much for a personal disaster,” Lea Anne says. “It was so nice to be able to pick out something new.”

The cost of disaster relief fluctuates. Three shelters and 1,000 meals during last year’s floods cost only $1,200. Flood relief in 1996 cost $282,000. The National Red Cross helped.

Health and safety classes net the local Red Cross about $30,000 a year. United Way also helps with $30,000 a year. But those amounts combined just cover salaries for the chapter’s four paid employees.

With no money left in its reserve account, the Panhandle chapter’s future is shaky.

To help, Larry has organized the first American Red Cross Benefit Golf Tournament, scheduled for July 17 at the Highlands Golf and Country Club. He’s looking for 144 golfers and businesses willing to sponsor each tee and green.

The $90 fee includes 18 holes and dinner at Carnegie’s Restaurant. For details, call 664-5414 - and help prevent another disaster.

Fast-track women

If you haven’t heard of Skurtzendirt, wake up. Skurtzendirt is a mountain biking weekend for women of any skill level at Farragut State Park June 27-28.

Local experts teach bike-handling skills, like riding over logs, and mechanical tricks, like cleaning chains.

The wild weekend includes day and night group rides, a catered dinner and pancake breakfast, a poker ride or a trip up Bernard Peak. Yikes.

The Mountain Bike Association puts on Skurtzendirt annually. The wild weekend costs $50 per person. Call 664-0654 for details.

Mountain greenery

College students returned from everywhere to North Idaho last month. My daughter was one of those. She spent the year back East, where she found people suffer from a glaring unfamiliarity with mountains, lakes and trees.

That lack of appreciation for nature’s gifts was more than she could stand. This fall, she’ll attend a West Coast school.