RELIEF COLUMNS
On Monday, February 5th, at Copper Hall, Lane College, Dr. Geo. F. Somers delivered a witty and entertaining lecture on “First Aid.” A trained litter-squad from the detachment of the First Unitarian Church composed of Messrs. Eastman, Addison, Meyerink and Mikkelsen appeared and gave a practical demonstration in illustration of the lecturer’s subject. The lecturer ingeniously introduced them, by saying, “There is a gentleman here who has met with an accident. Are there any Red Cross men present?” The squad seated individually in different parts of the auditorium assembled about their supposed “victim,” who was bandaged, and splinted, much to the amusement of the audience.
First-Aid Squad Which Accompanied Athletic Team to Australia.
The first county of California to organize a detachment was Alameda. Under the auspices of the State Branch, a very active and ambitious Detachment and Woman’s Auxiliary of the Legion of the Red Cross was formed at the conclusion of a banquet given by the ladies of the congregation of St. John’s Presbyterian Church. The detachment and auxiliary meet together at monthly lectures upon sanitation, hygiene, and allied subjects given by specialists in these different fields.
The detachment under the assistant directorship of Dr. J. N. Force is being drilled by Senior Sub-director Paul Y. Yost, commander of the California Cadets of the University of California.
The “Mariposa.”
The detachment of the Columbia Park Boys’ Club have been training a squad of four young men, Messrs. Wing, Cliffs, Clover and Peterson, who will accompany the athletic team of this famous organization to Australia. Through the courtesy of Dr. McCoy, of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, they will be drilled by Mr. James Leek.
The young men will start prepared for First Aid in the field and will doubtless have something to do during the football contests. This is perhaps the first squad of the new Legion of the Red Cross to be in service beyond the border of the United States.
By the steamer “Mariposa” on Friday, April 21, bound for New South Wales, a sergeant and a squad from the Grand Legion of the Red Cross, California Branch, accompanied the Columbia Park Boys’ Club upon their six months’ tour of the Antipodes.
With their credentials went a recommendation to Major G. L. Mullins, M. D. Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Australia.
San Francisco, March 18, 1909.
This is to certify that Leon Wing, sergeant of a squad from the detachment known as the “Columbia Park Boy’s Detachment of the Grand Legion of the Red Cross” is a duly accredited representative of the California Branch of the American National Red Cross, a branch of the International Red Cross established under the Treaty of Geneva.
We extend the hand of fraternity to the St. John’s Ambulance Association of Great Britain and recommend this squad and its sergeant to the kind offices of those representatives of the St. John’s Ambulance Association in Australia.
The Columbia Park Boy’s club has set a national standard of efficiency in training boys in clean living, thinking and athletes and it is both the pride and pleasure of the California Branch of the American National Red Cross to wish this, the first squad of a detachment of the Grand Legion of the Red Cross to visit another nation, God speed and a hearty welcome in the Antipodes.
(Signed)
BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, President.
MRS. JOHN F. MERRILL, First Vice-President.
MRS. THURLOW McMULLIN, State Secretary.
DR. G. H. RICHARDSON, Field Agent.
WM. LATHROP MCCLURE, Sec. Legion (Asst. Dir.)