Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian: Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of AmericaYoung, Charles Sumner
History
Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian: Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of America
Young, Charles Sumner
Barton, Clara, 1821-1912
“Think, friends, what it would be—yes, what it will be, when all the
rough, sturdy men of danger, living every hour in the face of accident
and death, shall know what to do in the moment for his writhing
companion in toil; when the homes—the children in the streets and in the
schools—shall all possess the knowledge which this method of human
beneficence teaches—this is First Aid—this is what it stands for—the
lessons which it inculcates and its faithful apostles teach.
“So young, so tiny, this beginning seems to you, scarcely meriting the
attention or the aid of busy people.
“But, watch it, busy men and women, it will bear watching.
“We are here today to learn something of what it has accomplished in a
year.... I am dumb with amazement. The very thought of the diligence—the
tirelessness—the cheerful alacrity—the bravery with which obstacles have
been attacked—the courage with which they have been overcome—the single
handedness—the small means and the great results astonish, and gratify
me. So much for so little. Let me step aside and give place to the
report which will tell us all.”
The association is today what its name implies—The National Association
of First Aid in America. It is to the American people what the St. John
Ambulance Association is to England, and the St. Andrews Ambulance
Association is to Scotland. It is a college of National First Aid
instruction—offering one textbook, one course of lectures, one
examination, one diploma in kind for all.
For the past nine years, since the death of the Founder, it has given
service the Clara Barton way—promptly, efficiently, thoroughly—and its
classes send forth each year hundreds of National First Aid graduates
who are capable men and women, and who wear the little medallion of
National First Aid service (which only a graduate may purchase and
wear), out into a world of suffering humanity. Word of their activities
comes back to national headquarters from many fields—even from far off
India, South America, and the Hawaiian Islands. One graduate sent back
word from the Soudan, Africa, “What would we have done without National
First Aid when there is only one medical doctor to every 500,000
natives?”
Clara Barton said of The National First Aid Association of America:
“Another work reaches out its hands to me and I have taken them. The
humane and far sighted are pressing to its standard—the standard of
organized First Aid to the Injured.”
The true history of Clara Barton should not leave out the work of The
National First Aid Association of America, Clara Barton’s last work. If
so, the history of the great philanthropist becomes an unfinished
record. The association stands today as a working memorial to Clara
Barton. It continues to serve the American people under her name.
Without ostentation it continues its humane service, making friends,
sending forth efficient graduates, and carrying systematic and organized
First Aid instruction to every part of the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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