Submitted photo
(From left) Juniata County Commissioners Mark Partner and Alice Gray pictured with American Red Cross representatives Melinda Rosario and Andrew Goodolf.

MIFFLINTOWN — Juniata County Commissioners issued a proclamation Tuesday morning during the board’s weekly meeting, proclaiming March 2024 as American Red Cross Month.

Local representatives from Red Cross, Melinda Rosario and Andrew Goodolf were in attendance to provide information for the public and announce that they are taking over for the Juniata County area. They now cover Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, Mifflin and Juniata counties.

“We have responded to five disaster events in Juniata County in the last fiscal year,” said Rosario.

They currently have nine full time volunteers and have clocked almost 17,000 volunteer hours.

The American Red Cross office is located in Lewistown, but they have volunteers everywhere and do not need a physical office in the area to help serve the community, as explained by Rosario.

“We go to people when they’re in distress or experiencing a disaster. You can call 1-800-REDCROSS, 24/7 and receive help,” Rosario said. “This number will direct you to your coverage area.”

Also during the meeting, commissioners also heard a presentation by Vince Giordano, director of the Juniata County Library, regarding the Library’s activities during the 2023 calendar year during this weekly meeting.

Giordano told commissioners that the library now has 113 youth programs with a few new ones that were started this last year.

The library offers a homeschool program which is held each month and offers programming in or out of the library geared towards home school families.

“My wife and her siblings were all homeschool and public libraries are extremely valuable to them,” Giordano said.

Saturday family programs is another new program for those that can’t make it during the

work week.