MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The American Red Cross has opened a state-of-the-art facility in Memphis, designed to expand the humanitarian services organization’s service delivery capacity to the area, helping more people get trained, get help and give blood.
The building, located at 1399 Madison Ave. in the heart of the medical district of Memphis, serves as the new operations center for disaster response, preparedness training, service to the armed forces, and health and safety services, and it also includes a blood distribution center.
The Red Cross will host a Grand Opening and open house on March 24 at 10 a.m. City officials, Red Cross leadership, staff and volunteers will all be on hand to answer questions.
The American Red Cross of the Mid-South serves 10 counties: Shelby, Fayette, Tipton, Lauder-dale, Dyer, Lake, and Obion in Tennessee; Tunica and Desoto in Mississippi; and Critten-den in Arkansas.
The center is open seven days a week. As part of the expansion in services, the Red Cross has hired eight additional local staff.
The Red Cross serves approximately 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide — including nine hospitals in Memphis and the surrounding area: Regional One Health, St. Francis Hospital Memphis, St. Francis Hospital-Bartlett, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, VA Medical Center, Tri-Lakes Medical Center, Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, Helena Regional Medical Center and Forrest City Medical Center.
The updated facility is thanks largely in part to FedEx, which provided a gift of $1 million. In addition to the new blood distribution center, the facility will include a Disaster Operations Center and Community Training Center made possible by the Assisi Foundation, a Health and Safety Training Center made possible by Baptist Memorial Healthcare, a Volunteer Work Center made possible by the Plough Foundation, a Disaster Action Team Staging Area made possible by the First Tennessee Foundation, and Private Client Interview Rooms made possible by American Snuff.
The Red Cross will commemorate financial donors who helped make this project a success on the “Donor Wall” located in the main lobby.
For more information, visit redcrossblood.org and redcross.org/TN/Memphis.
What a wonderful facility for our tri-state area. I was out-of-town and just got back last night. Congratulations and tremendous thanks to Federal Express for their one million dollar contribution.