Paul Schulz (center), American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles CEO, presents a plaque to Farmers Insurance Group Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Mark Smith (l) and CEO Robert Woudstra for supporting local and international efforts.

To help bolster its volunteer ranks during a catastrophe, the Red Cross has launched “Ready When the Time Comes,” a program that provides disaster training to employees at businesses who will then become part of the Red Cross volunteer reserves.

To kick-start the program in the Los Angeles region, L.A. area title sponsor Farmers Insurance Group of Companies® contributed $30,000 to the Greater Los Angeles Red Cross and $20,000 to other Southern California chapters.

“We are in the disaster response business and see this partnership as a natural fit,” said Farmers Insurance Group Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Kelso. “We greatly admire and respect the worldwide work the American Red Cross does and look forward to working with this fine organization.”

The American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles estimates it will need 20,000 volunteers to provide services to people uprooted by a large-scale disaster— far more than the 2,500 Red Cross volunteers who are currently trained.

“During disasters, we need as many people as possible to help us deliver services, so we are very grateful to Farmers Insurance Group for its financial contribution to launch this program, as well as its commitment to allow the Red Cross to train employees,” said Paul Schulz, CEO, American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles. “We hope other companies will follow the lead of this forward-thinking company.”

Help for Haiti

In addition to taking a lead role in the Ready When the Time Comes partnership, Farmers also donated more than $260,000 to the Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts. This donation is a combination of money raised by Farmers employees, agents and district managers, and dollars matched by Zurich Financial Insurance. Farmers further celebrated the new partnership by hosting blood drives at its University of Farmers building in Westlake and at Farmers Home Office in Los Angeles.

For information about the “Ready When the Time Comes,” program, please visit the PrepareLA+ website. For businesses interested in participating in the program, please call Amy Keller at (310) 445-2685 or email her at kellera@arcla.org