Proclamation 4191—Red Cross Month, 1973

Each year, in the spirit of good neighborliness, millions of Americans pool their resources and efforts under the Red Cross banner to help others in distress or need.

The services of the Red Cross assist many kinds of people. They help provide lifesaving blood for the ill and injured; help restore the shattered lives of disaster victims; help our servicemen, veterans, and their families in periods of emergency; and help save lives and lessen suffering through training in first aid, water safety, and simple nursing skills.

While these could be called the basic purposes of the Red Cross, the organization also seeks out new areas of concern in American life. The Red Cross has helped the elderly to obtain government food assistance, the veteran to readjust to civilian life, the drug abuser to seek help, the migrant worker to better his living standards, and the student to obtain tutoring assistance.

Although the Red Cross receives the cooperation of many Federal, State, and local agencies, it derives its major financial support from the voluntary contributions of the American people. During the past year the Red Cross has been operating under an especially heavy financial burden because of outlays for disaster relief following the flood in Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Hurricane Agnes tragedy. I urge every American to help ensure that the Red Cross has the funds and volunteer manpower to fulfill its responsibilities during the year ahead. Helping the Red Cross—the Good Neighbor—continue its wide range of assistance programs is one way in which each of us can help our communities and our country.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America and Honorary Chairman of the American National Red Cross, do hereby designate March 1973 as Red Cross Month, a month when every citizen is asked to join, serve, and contribute.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON