Red Cross move builds on East County presence

The closure of an American Red Cross building that's more than 20 years old ends a chapter for the west Bradenton community and marks a new beginning for the organization's 9-year-old East County facility.

The former American Red Cross headquarters, located on 59th Street, closed July 24, and is moving its volunteers and four staff members to its Lakewood Ranch location on Malachite Drive.

Hidden behind the Lakewood Ranch YMCA and beside Lakewood Ranch High School’s athletic fields, the East County branch hasn’t been staffed in more than five years. 

The $1.7 million building has been underutilized since it opened in 2006, said Megarie van Sickel, executive director of the Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Red Cross.

"This is a great location that definitely hasn’t been used to its full potential, yet,” van Sickel added. “We’re excited about this move.”

The location will likely host an open house event in the fall to reintroduce itself to the community.

The group’s immediate obstacle is to overcome its curse of accruing real estate in areas hidden from major roadways. The 59th Street location was tucked off on a side road that connected Manatee Avenue and Cortez Road. And, its Sarasota location stems from a small side road parallel to Cattlemen Road, Cantu Court.

"Some residents don't even know we're here (in East County)," said Bené Hunter, a disaster relief specialist. "I tell people I'm working out in Lakewood Ranch now and they say, 'Really? I didn't know there was a location there.'"

Van Sickel and Hunter believe the facility's close proximity to Interstate 75 and immersion in the heart of an ever-growing community will help Red Cross increase its volunteer numbers.

Hunter, a Panther Ridge resident, believes operating in a growing community will also attract more donations from the plethora of businesses and residents living throughout East County.

“This community has a lot to offer,” Hunter said. “You always hear how much it’s growing, and it’s obvious. This is where people want to be."

The west Bradenton location closed to cut costs for the national organization, which owns the building but not the property on which it sits. American Red Cross hopes to sell the building within a year, but it hasn't listed the space yet.

“We’re trying to be smarter with our donor dollars by consolidating the real estate of two locations in the same city,” van Sickel said. “It was a tough decision to make, because we do have volunteers tied to the 59th Street location, but we have to make those tough choices sometimes.”

Although its building in the Ranch is smaller than the facility near G.T. Bray Park in Bradenton, which has more than 20,000 square feet, the Ranch facility is designed to foster more of an interactive environment.

“The space is just used differently here,” Hunter said. “The multipurpose room we have in the back has multiple spaces for desks and a meeting table in the center, which allows for more collaboration between volunteers. In our old office, we had 12 offices and no room where several people could gather. This space is more welcoming.”

With just two offices and a multipurpose room and classroom, which can be divided into two classrooms or used as one room depending on class size, the facility better reflects Red Cross' belief that its employees and volunteers work beyond the building.

"Red Cross volunteers always say they don't tie themselves to a building, they can work anywhere," van Sickel said. "This space is just big enough to house our necessary courses, provide information to our community and to be used for daily operations. We're present in the community, but we don't rely on the space or how big it is to make a difference here."

East County residents can soon expect more CPR and other training courses available weekly in Lakewood Ranch. Prior to the decision to relocate services and manpower to the East County location, the Red Cross building housed training and meetings just once or twice a month.

The location will also have volunteers and staff members available to answer questions Monday through Friday. Volunteers typically work from home or travel to different Red Cross locations, rather than having a “home location,” volunteer Paula Perkins said.

So, the Ranch location won’t have a fixed number of volunteers, but full-time staff members will occupy the location weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

"We’ll have a face in this community now; we're their location out east,” Perkins said. "It'll just take some time for us to strengthen that connection and grow the relationship."

Contact Amanda Sebastiano [email protected].