The Cruz Roja Chapala executive board has implemented a variety of innovative fund-raising strategies with the aim of meeting or surpassing the 200,000-peso goal set for the 2012 spring donation drive.
Board President Oscar España reports that the local Red Cross hit a banner year for the annual Colecta campaign in 2006 with donations totaling 280,000 pesos. The take has steadily dwindled since then, plummeting to just over 97,000 last year. To reverse the trend, the board has come up with fresh ideas and recruited a strong team of assistants to spread out in the five municipalities served by the Chapala facility.
The organization is actively pushing the peso-for-peso matching program offered this year to Telmex customers holding contracts for residential phone lines. Customers whose numbers begin with a 376 or 387 area code prefix have an opportunity to double their donations by pledging up to a total of 2,000 pesos that will be charged to their Telmex bills. Contributions in amounts ranging from 50 to 500 pesos may be made in one or more separate calls placed to *6565 by April 15. The Fundacion Carlos Slim will cough up an equal amount for each registered pledge.Beyond that, España says Cruz Roja staff and volunteers are hitting the streets to drum up donations. In addition to hitting up passing motorists at principal intersections, the team shows up at key tourist spots on Saturdays and Sundays to solicit contributions from weekend visitors and fans out into local neighborhoods on weekdays making door-to-door calls on residents. Medics and nurses have been stationed at Wal-Mart and Soriana to offer blood pressure and glucose checks in exchange for pocket money. And the mother of staff doctor Erika Urenda has been supplying volunteers with home-baked cookie lollipops decorated with Red Cross insignia that are selling fast at 20 pesos a piece.
España says that all these efforts seem to be paying off, with 30,000 pesos pulled in the drive’s first weekend alone. He happily acknowledged the surprise discovery of a 500-dollar check dropped into one of the Red Cross piggy banks by a generous expatriate resident.
He said that the Chapala Red Cross has reaped additional benefits due to the dedicated work of its staff. After completing an intensive first-aid training program for 300 local people, including scores of fishermen and restaurant employees, the clinic was awarded a cache of rescue equipment valued at 50,000 pesos from the federal Social Development Agency (Sedesol) through the Jalisco state government. Cruz Roja Jalisco also donated 60,000 pesos’ worth of computer and projection equipment to enhance Chapala’s training programs.
España rates Chapala’s Cruz Roja Urban Search and Rescue team as one of the best in the nation, noting that it has been put on call to respond to major disasters such as last year’s earthquake-tsumani tragedy in Japan and the powerful earthquake that hit Mexico just this week. Three members of the staff will head out to Silao, Guanajuato this weekend to attend to medical emergencies during Pope Benedict’s visit to the country.