You can #Help1Family on American Red Cross Giving Day, March 28

American Red Cross Giving Day is coming up on March 28th, 2018. On this day, the American Red Cross hopes to receive donations to aid in their disaster relief efforts. This is why I personally plan to participate and really hope that you will too!

Way back in 1992, I had the unfortunate opportunity of experiencing a Category 5 Hurricane...when I was 14 years old. Our entire world changed in Miami on August 24, 1992, as Hurricane Andrew blew into Miami and ripped our lives apart at the seams. When I say "seams," I am speaking both metaphorically, concerning our emotional and mental state, but also literally, in regards to the seams to our roof. Natural disasters barrel into our lives and leave behind destruction, chaos and a broken spirit. People die, and even when they don't, you lives are never quite the same. It's been 26 years since the fateful day that Hurricane Andrew devastated Miami, and I still tear up as I sit here and write this. Long after your power is restored, long after your home is rebuilt, long after your community plants new trees, long after the survivors begin to heal and move on, we carry the scars of what these natural disasters do to us. When I realized that another Category 5 Hurricane was heading towards Miami in September 2017, I was paralyzed with fear. Everything that happened during Hurricane Andrew came flashing before my eyes, and I just R A N.

I evacuated to St Pete, Florida, unknowingly putting myself directly into the path of Hurricane Irma as she shifted course. To say that I was terrified would be an understatement. Thankfully, after Irma made landfall near Naples, Florida, she weakened and we were spared the wrath that Puerto Rico endured.

While we managed to escape Hurricane Irma with minimal damage to my home and landscaping, others weren't so fortunate. Across the state and throughout the Caribbean, people struggled to survive during AND even more so after Hurricane Irma...and that is why the American Red Cross is SO IMPORTANT to me. While it almost 30 years ago, I still remember the American Red Cross coming into Miami after Hurricane Andrew and helping. Providing supplies, assistance, food - while they weren't the only relief agency to come and help hurricane survivors, they are the one I remember the most.

Did you know that nearly every eight minutes, the American Red Cross meets a family that has lost everything to a home fire or other disaster? Whether it's the roof over their heads, their clothes, or their most cherished possessions, victims of natural disasters and fires receive so much assistance and care from the American Red Cross, and on March 28th, 2018, I am asking that YOU help to, by participating in American Red Cross Giving Day by making a donation to the American Red Cross to aid in their relief efforts in the wake of disasters.

With social media making natural disasters all over our country seem like they're happening right in our backyard, it can often leave us feeling so helpless to do anything - especially when we have friends and family in the areas affected. Now you can help during those first devastating hours when disaster strikes, simply by being involved in American Red Cross Giving Day!

On March 28, unite with thousands of people like you on American Red Cross Giving Day to make a difference. If we each #help1family, think of what we could do. You can visit redcross.org/givingday to learn more, but know that your gift of $88.50 can provide a family with a day’s worth of food, plus blankets and other essentials. Yes, that's an entire family, an entire day of everything they need to make life just a little less horrific in the wake of a life-altering disaster.