It was a rainy day on Saturday, but that wouldn’t stop a great group of Red Cross volunteers and partners from visiting dozens of homes in the Town of Lloyd in Ulster County to help end home fire tragedies.

Group Photo

Together with the Town of Lloyd, Highland Central School District, Highland Fire Department, the Town of Lloyd Police Department, and Ulster County Emergency Management, as well as volunteers from Gordon Fire Equipment and ServiceMaster by NEST, the Red Cross installed 151 brand new smoke alarms on Saturday, at absolutely no cost to local residents. They visited 54 homes in total, and educated families – including lots of kids – on the importance of fire safety.

Local residents had lots of positive feedback for the volunteers who visited them. One woman wrote on Facebook:

“Thank you so much for coming to our home too! My children learned a lot of very helpful information today! We enjoyed listening and chatting with the volunteers!”

In addition to the many partners who lent their support to make this event a success, local businesses — including Bagels & Bites, Dunkin’ Donuts, China Garden, On a Roll Deli, Gateway Diner, Coppola’s La Fantasia Ristorante, Pizza Mia and The Real 3 Guy Pizza — stepped up to help to feed the many volunteers who spent the day battling the elements to install lifesaving smoke alarms for those in need.

The Red Cross continues to offer free smoke alarms across the Mid-Hudson Valley (and all of Eastern New York!) as part of the ongoing Home Fire Campaign. Since 2014, volunteers and partners have installed more than 2,000 free smoke alarms across Ulster, Dutchess, Greene and Columbia counties alone, resulting in at least 7 lives saved to date. To learn more, or to request free smoke alarms from the Red Cross anywhere in the Eastern New York Region, please visit soundthealarm.org/eny.