Red Cross ready rating

The Pikes Peak Chapter of the Red Cross rolled out its new online tool to let you know how ready your business, organization, school or church is during a crisis. The web address is readyrating.org. It’s a 123 question free assessment. The dot org was started by a St. Louis Red Cross Chapter, seven years ago and has been expanding throughout the United States. Pikes Peak Red Cross Chapter C.EO, Thomas Gonzalez told me, “With our recent disasters of wildfires in our state, we are now locally engaging organizations, businesses and schools to allow them to assess what their needs are in a crisis.”

Steven Walker is the Sunnyside Christian Church’s Life Safety Director. He took readyrating.org for a test drive to see how effective it is to help organizations. His Colorado Springs church has 700 members and he is always evaluating safety protocols. Walker told me, “Obviously being a church, we have a lot of people there at a given point in time. We want to make sure it’s a safe place for them to gather.”

I asked Walker after he tried out ready rating what he thought of the assessment survey. He told me, “It’s a great tool to use to help think through some of the steps, people don’t naturally think through on their own.”

Red Cross CEO, Thomas Gonzalez is excited to push this project in Southern Colorado. He told me, “The Red Cross has a 131 year history of being proactive in developing our communities in how to be best prepared in times of need. This is what it is all about.”

Wednesday, September 26th, there will be a free workshop and luncheon from 12 pm to 1 pm. It will be at the Pikes Peak Red Cross Chapter office at 1040 South 8th Street in Colorado Springs. Contact the Red Cross by September 24th to RSVP at charlotte.funkhouser@redcross.org