Red Cross offers FREE Smoke alarms and installation

[RememberSchiff]

The American Red Cross has been offering free installation of smoke alarms across the country for nearly four years. ARC chapters often team with local fire departments or ask for volunteers (scouts) to install detectors and provide a safety talk. Perhaps there is a service project opportunity for your scouts with your local Red Cross chapter

http://www.poconorecord.com/news/20180224/scouts-team-with-red-cross-to-promote-fire-safety

http://www.redcross.org/local/new-hampshire-vermont/home-fire-safety/smoke-alarm

http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/20180204/free-smoke-alarms-and-co-detectors-available-from-red-cross

[Stosh]

You have to register as a volunteer, have parental permission, be over 16, and be accompanied by your parent when installing smoke alarms.  If scouts cannot use power-tools they can't participate in the actual installation but all other help is appreciated.

If they wish to canvass neighborhoods on their own and report their survey findings, that is great, but check with the local chapter personnel to coordinate efforts with them and to make sure those that wish to get the alarms actually get them.

There is a major push twice a year for installations, one in the fall before the winter fire season and again in the spring.  In spite of what people read in the news and see on TV, the #1 activity the Red Cross is involved with is the response of Disaster Action Team members to single family fires.  

Scouts can also help with the Blood Drives by making phone calls and staffing the on-site donation centers.

Yes, the scouts will be limited with what they can do, they probably not going to be able to make an Eagle project out of it, but as a service project, it offers a good opportunity to get out and serve in their communities.

[Stosh]

I did a follow up on this and one does NOT have to register as a volunteer, just have a parental permission signed and a photo waiver signed.

I checked with our local council and there is such a thing as a Red Cross Club that allows members to register and get ongoing partnership communications with the local chapters.  Learning for Life and/or Venturing could easily be set up for this (keep the 16 year age limit in mind).  First Aid/CPR/AED instructors can be as young as 16.  18+ year old volunteers who register with ARC get all training for free and are allowed to be deployed to national disaster relief operations anywhere in the US.  First Aid/CPR/AED instructors can be as young as 16. Sign up, get the background check, watch the training videos, mark your profile available, you get a call and within 24 hours you are fully immersed in the real world of floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, etc. to "help other people at all times."  It'll let you know in the first day, whether or not your Eagle rank is for real.

My council is looking seriously into partnering with the Red Cross for Blood Drive contacts, Wilderness First Aid, First Aid/CPR/AED, Fire Campaign, Life Saving, etc. 

In our conversation, a Fire Campaign neighborhood survey would work well as an Eagle Project,  "Here's a neighborhood, community, town, etc. we need to know who needs smoke alarms and what kind, knock yourself out."  It would take a lot of organizational leadership logistics to pull it off.  It's not like a blood drive where all the work is being done by someone else and the Eagle candidate shows up at the end of adult organization and hands out cookies and welcomes people at the door.