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Campaigning in the city by April 1917
The 1917 campaigns: The St. Joseph County chapter of the American Red Cross enters the surviving record at war pitch. On 15 April 1917 the South Bend News-Times reported 25,000 membership cards going out across the city ahead of a three-day campaign for 5,000 members starting that Thursday; the Elks' Boy Scouts had spent Saturday distributing the blanks to the churches, volunteers were being received at the Federation for Social Service offices, and "the honor of being the first to become members of the local chapter" went to Mrs. F. M. Hatch, for the women, and Dr. George P. Morey, for the men. In June the chapter's work turned to the national war fund: St. Joseph County's quota was 70,000 dollars, and after two days of campaigning the fund stood at 22,900 dollars, with downtown subscription stations in the stores and hotels and checks payable to the chapter headquarters at the Chamber of Commerce building. The paper's published contributor list of 20 June 1917 was led by the Studebaker Corporation at 3,000 dollars. The chapter's charter date itself is not pinned in the record reached — the organization of the chapter was April 1917 news, and its first members and first campaign are what the record preserves whole. The chapter served the county through the century's wars and disasters from those beginnings; its later course and its present structure within the national organization's Indiana Region were not separately documented in the sources reached for this account, and stand as a named route for the update cycle.
Sources:
- South Bend News-Times, 15 April 1917 (Hoosier State Chronicles) — the 25,000 cards, the 5,000-member campaign, the first members, the Federation offices.
- South Bend News-Times, 20 and 21 June 1917 (Hoosier State Chronicles) — the 70,000-dollar county quota; 22,900 dollars after two days; the Chamber of Commerce headquarters; the contributor list led by the Studebaker Corporation's 3,000 dollars; the appeal signed by Ignatius K. Werwinski.