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History
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Chapter History:
Your Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter has been delivering lifesaving services to the people of Palm Beach County for more than 91 years. Today our chapter jurisdiction covers four counties, over 5,000 square miles and serves a population reaching 1.5 million residents.
We do all that we do with approximately 45 employed staff and over 3,000 committed volunteers. We are proud to serve the counties of Glades, Hendry, Okeechobee & Palm Beach.
Our premier programs are Disaster Preparedness and Response along with Military Communications and Health & Safety programs. Funding for Chapter programs has been through generous individual and corporate donations.
Clara Barton and West Palm Beach History:
Our chapter was chartered in 1917, during World War I. In 1944 Mrs. Henry Rea donated a house at 201 Evernia Street to the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter American Red Cross to be used as a chapter building. The house had historical interest because Miss Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, after years of relief and war work, wrote to a friend in West Palm Beach asking the friend to locate a room for her. A room was secured at the home of Mrs. Olive Maltby, the same home which was later purchased and donated by Mrs. Rea.
The Evernia Street Chapter house was sold in 1963, and a new chapter building was constructed at 825 Fern Street.
During World War II, the Palm Beach area contained a number of military training sites and operations. The Biltmore Hotel became a Coast Guard training school, and The Breakers became Ream General Army Hospital for soldiers returning from North Africa. U.S. warships patrolled the waters off the coast of Palm Beach and at least five American ships were lost to U-boat attacks within a few miles of the island. Survivors were treated at local hospitals and your Red Cross was there.
In fact the American Red Cross attracted the support of several hundred Palm Beach residents during these war years. Mrs. Henry Rea, honorary chairman of the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, had founded the Gray Ladies in Washington D.C. during World War I when she was assigned to Walter Reed Hospital as the first woman field director in the American Red Cross. Other Palm Beach notables, Princess Evangeline Zalstem-Zalesky and Gloria Baker Topping, were members of the Red Cross Motor Corps ambulance drivers and were typical of the society women who remained in Palm Beach year-round to aid the war efforts.
Jurisdiction:
The Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter is a four county chapter serving Glades , Hendry , Okeechobee and Palm Beach counties.
Geographically, Palm Beach County is the largest county east of the Mississippi River. It covers over 2,023 square miles from southern Boca Raton to Jupiter, Tequesta in the north end and west to Pahokee and Belle Glade.
The Central Service area is managed from our chapter headquarters located in West Palm Beach.
The South Palm Beach County Branch office, originally opened in 1970 and initially staffed solely by volunteers, was recently renovated in 2008 in order to better meet the needs of the growing community in South County. Today, the Count & Countess de Hoernle South County Service Center, located on Federal Highway in Boca Raton, proudly services Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Highland Beach residents, as well as those living in the unincorporated areas and Western Communities of southern Palm Beach County. Employed staff members join the approximately 250 volunteers in order to provide important Red Cross programs and services to South County area residents.
The South County Service Center in Boca Raton was generously donated by the Count and Countess de Hoernle. Other donors included Ms. Libby Dodson, Ms. Lucille Barton, Ms. Joan Vinik, Ms. Bette Van Den Heuvel, Rita and John Hobbs, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Carman, Edward Snowdon, Bonnie and Peter Dokuchitz and Tina and George Stone.
The North Palm Beach County Branch officially opened in 1982 in a small office in Jupiter, and eventually moved into a larger space in Palm Beach Gardens. The Branch is now located on Indiantown Rd. in Jupiter, as of July 2008. Mr. Harry Leckler was instrumental in opening the North County Branch which services Northern Palm Beach County, the fastest growing area in Palm Beach County. The geographic area includes Jupiter, Tequesta, Juno Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and Mangonia Park.
Our Glades Area Branch Office was the vision of Mrs. Irvin Zumpf, a benefactress of the Red Cross, and Mr. Richard Turner. Mr. Turner, a Board member for the American Red Cross, saw a need to better serve the residents of the western communities. He approached the Board of Directors and asked if a branch location could be established in Belle Glade. The Board agreed but requested that $10,000 be raised to cover the new location's expenses. After exhausting efforts, $9,400 was raised and the Glades Area Branch opened on November 21, 1989, serving Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee.
In May of 1996 the Red Cross Southeast Regional Office asked our chapter to adopt Hendry County. We immediately began serving the Hendry County area, which includes Clewiston, Labelle and the surrounding area. In May of 1999 Hendry County was officially annexed into the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter and the office moved to its current location in South Bay. In 2002, our chapter was once again asked to expand—this time to annex Glades County into our jurisdiction. Thus, we expanded to three counties and soon were to add a fourth county with Okeechobee.
The Okeechobee County Branch of the American Red Cross was an all volunteer chapter, with office space located in the Okeechobee County's Division of Emergency Management Office. In order to provide better Red Cross service to its residents, Okeechobee County was annexed to the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter at the February 2002 American Red Cross Board of Governor's meeting. Okeechobee Branch is located within the City of Okeechobee.
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