| GENERAL INFORMATION |
Northeast Georgia Chapter History
The American National Red Cross was formed in the city of Washington, District of Columbia in July, 1881. In 1905, the Congress of the United States mandated two services to the American Red Cross that are still in force today and being fulfilled by every Red Cross Chapter. Those two services are; Service To Military and Disaster Services.
The Red Cross Society in Gainesville, received its charter April 14, 1917. Nine volunteers under the leadership of Edgar B. Dunlap began the work. Volunteer Ella Powell, was appointed field Promoter and her job was, "To visit neighboring communities and organize branch chapters of Red Cross to work with the Gainesville chapter".
Throughout the years the North Georgia area continued to expand and grow. Some counties in the area had active Red Cross Chapters and some of those chapters had become inactive. In 1979, a plan began to unfold to merge all the counties into one chapter. The goal was to increase services to a population of nearly 200,000 persons. Forsyth, Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Habersham, Stephens, Rabun, and Hall joined together to become known as the Northeast Georgia Chapter.
The Northeast Georgia Chapter is governed by a volunteer board of Directors with representatives from each county participating. In each county a Red Cross advisory committee, chaired by one of the board members, meets regularly. All volunteers in the county can participate in the advisory committee meetings where service delivery and fund raising goals are established.
In 1995, the Northeast Georgia Chapter became the custodian for four additional counties, Gilmer, Pickens, Union and Towns where no chapter existed. As custodian, the Northeast Georgia Chapter ensures that the congressionally mandated services mentioned above will be available to the residents of these four counties.
In 2000, the Northeast Georgia Chapter became the custodian for Fannin county after the Polk/Fannin Chapter surrendered its charter. In 2006, the Chapter requested the addition of the five custodial counties (Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Fannin). To date the Northeast Georgia Chapter services thirteen counties. It has been designated a strategic Chapter by the Service Area.
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