[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 8 (Monday, March 1, 1999)]
[Pages 309-310]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7168--American Red Cross Month, 1999

February 25, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    For almost 120 years, the American Red Cross has served as a beacon 
of hope to those in need. Reaching out to victims of disaster, 
generations of Red Cross volunteers have provided shelter, food, and 
other essential services to relieve the suffering of families and 
communities and help people begin the process of rebuilding their lives. 
Today more than a million dedicated men and women volunteer under the 
banner of the American Red Cross, upholding this extraordinary tradition 
of service and assisting people across our Nation and around the world 
to prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.
    The strength and scope of the natural disasters that occurred during 
1998 made this past year among the most devastating in recent history. 
Floods, tornadoes, winter storms, and wildfires ravaged communities 
across the Nation. Hurricanes Georges and Mitch caused record 
destruction in the Gulf

[[Page 310]]

States and Central America. In total, the American Red Cross responded 
to more than 62,000 disasters in 1998. Whether it was a fire that 
destroyed a family's home or a hurricane that destroyed an entire 
region, the Red Cross reacted immediately with compassion, generosity, 
and humanity.
    Yet the Red Cross does more than cope with emergencies. During the 
past year, volunteers collected and processed nearly six million units 
of lifesaving blood for our Nation's hospitals and educated more than 11 
million Americans through health and safety courses. The Red Cross also 
reached out to the men and women of our Armed Forces, their families, 
and our veterans, helping our military personnel keep in touch with home 
during family emergencies, offering confidential counseling and other 
support services, and assisting veterans in obtaining their benefits. In 
the past year alone, the American Red Cross provided more than 840,000 
individual services to those who have given so much to protect our 
Nation and preserve our freedom.
    During American Red Cross Month, as we take time to recognize this 
vital organization and all that it has accomplished, we can and should 
look forward with hope to the new century. For while we can never know 
the challenges we may face in the future, whether as individuals or as a 
national community, we do know that the American Red Cross will continue 
to serve, enabling us to meet those challenges and to recover from 
disaster. As Americans, let us sustain our long-standing support of the 
Red Cross and its humanitarian mission and renew our commitment to the 
ideals upon which it was founded. By reaching out with compassion and 
caring to help those in need, we can ensure a brighter future for our 
Nation and our world in the new millennium.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America and Honorary Chairman of the American Red Cross, by 
virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, do hereby proclaim March 1999 as American Red Cross 
Month. I urge all the people of the United States to show support for 
their local Red Cross chapters and to become active participants in 
advancing the noble mission of the Red Cross.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth 
day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., March 1, 1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
March 2.