About Us

It is the mission of the Greater Somerset County Chapter to actively participate in providing the community with disaster planning, preparedness, disaster education, mitigation, and response through our quality services and programs.

As your local Red Cross Chapter, we respond to disasters, including residential fires (the majority of disaster responses), hurricanes, floods, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions, and other natural and man-made disasters that cause human suffering or create human needs that those affected cannot alleviate without assistance. The American Red Cross is an independent, humanitarian, voluntary organization, not a government agency.

Although not a government agency, the Red Cross authority to provide disaster relief was formalized when, in 1905, it was chartered by Congress to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." The Charter is not only a grant of power, but also an imposition of duties and obligations to the nation, to disaster victims, and to the people who generously support its work with their donations.

All Red Cross assistance is given free of charge, made possible by the generous contribution of people's time, money, and skills.