Troy residents to get smoke alarms
Volunteers sought to help effort May 5
TROY, N.Y. » Volunteers are needed to sound the alarm in the tri- city area as part of an American Red Cross initiative to install smoke alarms and save lives.
The American Red Cross of Northeastern New York is planning its largest local home fire safety and smoke alarm installation event ever on Saturday, May 5 in Albany, Schenectady and Troy.
As part of this nationwide cam- paign — titled “Sound the Alarm. Save a Life.” — Red Cross volunteers and community partners plan to install 1,000 free smoke alarms across the three Capital Region cities in one day.
The Red Cross has teamed up with Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy, and Troy Mayor Patrick Madden, along with numerous community groups and corporate partners, for this major tricity event.
“On May 5, we need the entire Capital Region to come together and help us make an enormous impact,” said Gary Striar, regional CEO for the American Red Cross, in a press release. “Volunteers can sign up to Sound the Alarm in the city of their choice. No matter what city you choose, you’ll be helping to save lives from home fires – the biggest disaster threat our community faces.”
The purpose of this event is to save lives from being taken by home fires, which kill more people every year than all other disasters combined.
The American Red Cross Home Fire Campaign is making a difference across the country, the release said. Since 2014, the Red Cross and our partners in more than 12,000 cities and towns have installed over 1.1 million free smoke alarms and made nearly 500,000 households safer.
In Eastern New York, the organization has installed more than 10,000 smoke alarms and provided hundreds of families with free fire safety education. Already, at least 14 lives have been saved in our region thanks to this effort.
To continue the progress, volunteers are invited to help Sound the Alarm in the Capital Region on Saturday, May 5 to prevent these tragedies in the local community.
At least 100 volunteers are needed to join the effort from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in each city. All volunteers will receive training and an official event T-shirt from the Red Cross. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Prospective volunteers are invited to attend one of several open house information sessions at the American Red Cross (33 Ev- erett Road, Albany, NY) to learn more. Sessions will be held every 20 minutes between 6:00 and 7:00 P. M. on Wednesday, April 18; Wednesday, April 25; and Wednesday, May 2. In these short sessions, volunteers will be able to sign up for Sound the Alarm, get trained on volunteer roles and responsibilities, and ask any questions they may have.
In addition to volunteering, people can visit this site to make a donation, start a personal fundraiser, learn more about home fire safety, and/or request free smoke alarms from the Red Cross.
Online volunteer registration is open now at soundthealarm.org/ eny, where more information in available as well.