Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1917 — How to Secure and Fit Up a Red Cross Workroom [ARTICLE]

How to Secure and Fit Up a Red Cross Workroom

After an auxiliary of the Red Cross has been formed and has determined Upon the specific work which it will do, a place of meeting must be secured. A light room will be needed where work tables will accommodate the women who volunteer to do the work in hand. In many cities’and towns business men donate vacant rooms in commercial buildings for this purpose. In all the large department stores in the country, floor space has been allotted to this work and placards, posted throughout the stores, invite shoppers to give an hour or so of their time to Red Cross work. . The workrooms of millinery shops are turned over to Red Cross workers in the evening, in some of the smaller cities and towns.; It. is best to secure “a vacant-roonrJn a store building or space in a store, to be used solely for Red Cross, work. Club women and members of various women’s organizations, church societies, etc., can be allotted a definite time during .each week, to meet in a body and work together, in these rooms. When a room has been secured It must be fitted with work tables and chairs. Plain wooden chairs and long tables are best and the, tables are to be covered with oilcloth, if possible, so that they can be easily kept clean. Nails along the walls, or elsewhere, will be needed In which big overall aprons are to be hung. Above each nail a small ticket pasted to the wall carries the name of Jhe owner-of the apron, or a string ticket may be used on the apron. A few extra aprons should be provided for volunteer workers who may not he able to come Regularly, but drop in at odd times to give Kb hour or so to the work. Two or

three women—can share an apron among them, if each has a definite time set aside for using it. A place for storing the supplies made and facilities for packing theim in boxes when they are to be shipped away, must be provided. And an important item not to be overlooked, is a place for washing the hands; for this must be done, without fail, as a preliminary to any work done for the Red Cross. Small towels, not larger than a small table napkin are used for drying the hands. Members of the auxiliary can make and donate these, using old linen for the purpose. It is n good idea, w'hen a room, has Iteerf seclired and flttednp.Yd pay some woman a small weekly fee to keep it clean and orderly. She will be expected to see that it is swept and dusted and that the tables are washed when necessary. Having secured a room and its fittings, and someone to keep It in order, the women of a new auxiliary are ready to go to work. Military 'hospi- ■ tals are using and will use enormous quantities of surgical dressings and hospital supplies and these are the things that women who are anxious to be of patriotic service to the government can malke. Directions for going about this work will be given in the next article.

’ The £1,000.000,000 raised for |h<* British war loan, if assembled in one pound notes laid end to end, would stretch four times around the eartn near the equator.