When It Roars, Go Indoors!

With an excited group of 100 enthusiastic, fired-up students from several schools in Philadelphia, and in the company of Lloyd Ayers, Fire Commissioner, City of Philadelphia and Tom Foley, CEO of the Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter, we wrapped up our series of "Race to Prepare: events with Red Cross, FedEx and our NASCAR team on Thursday, September 24th.

Just two weeks earlier, we were in Richmond, facilitating a similar event with students at St. Joseph's Villa, and before that at the Indianapolis Speedway with kids from Speedway Middle School. In each city, dedicated FedEx volunteers helped teach students about disaster preparedness by facilitating events where teams of students raced to see who could build their sets of disaster preparedness kits the fastest.

Each student left the event with the beginnings of a disaster preparedness kit and an understanding of the importance of being ready for the unexpected. The events were carried out with the help of experts from the local Red Cross chapter in each city and with the support of VIPs representing local emergency services departments.

At the Richmond event, Edwin W. Smith, Henrico County Fire Chief, made quite an impression on the crowd. in his remarks about the importance of preparedness, he said with gusto, "When it roars, go indoors!" he further explained to the kids that whenever we hear thunder we need to get inside.

At each event, in addition to engaging employee volunteers to teach young people about disaster preparedness, FedEx made a $10,000 grant to the local Red Cross chapter. At our final event in Philly, Joe Gibbs Racing matched our grant with and additional $10,000 in support of local Red Cross initiatives. The involvement of our NASCAR team in these events helped bring media attention to the important work of the Red Cross, resulting in more awareness in local communities about the need to be prepared.

While the Philly "Race to Prepare" event was our last one for the year, FedEx will continue to promote preparedness year-round with Red Cross in support of their ongoing "Do More Than Cross Your Fingers" campaign. We've supported Red Cross relief efforts for more than a decade, providing them with volunteers, cash grants and complimentary access to our powerful transportation network. By promoting preparedn3ess, we hope to help Red Cross build more resilient communities, before disasters strike.

Remember, When it roars, go indoors!