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Red Cross History - Mabel Boardman

1905... new century... new times -- and the American Red Cross had a new leader, with new ideas.  Succeeding the famed Clara Barton, Mabel Boardman gave her time and talents to the Red Cross for the greater part of the next four decades. Especially fruitful were the first ten years, during which, aided by carefully chosen professional staff, she revitalized the organization. Energetic, capable, and methodical, Miss Boardman made possible the national network of Red Cross services that enhance the lives of all Americans today.

Mabel Boardman's personality contrasted with that of the spirited, individualistic Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross in 1881 and its guiding hand for two decades.

The quiet resolve and intellectual precision that characterized Mabel Boardman's early years foretold a life of achievement. The bent of her interest became apparent in her teens, when she served as a volunteer in a day nursery in her native city of Cleveland, Ohio. Born into wealth, she was raised to believe that service is "the rent one pays for one's room on earth."

Clara Barton and Mabel Boardman each contributed a major share in shaping the American Red Cross into the great service organization that it now is. Although differing on many issues, they both worked to maintain a special Red Cross relationship with the federal government in national emergency matters.

When the 82-year-old Clara Barton retired in 1904, Mabel Boardman was impatient for change. Conservative by upbringing, yet moved to conscientious experiment in the interest of general welfare, she lost no time in putting her new ideas into effect -- within a framework of efficiency and strict accounting that brought credit to the organization.

In the revitalized Red Cross, disaster preparedness and relief and services to member of the armed forces were to remain primary concerns. But under Mabel Boardman's guidance, many new Red Cross programs were to get their start. The Red Cross was to become a force in public health nursing and in dietetics and a leader in life-saving and first aid training. It was to initiate the sale of Christmas Seals in the fight against tuberculosis and to work with nursing organizations in enrolling nurses as a reserve for wartime and disaster service. Mabel Boardman took a special interest in the formation and direction of Red Cross Home Service, the Nurses Aide Corps, the Motor Corps, and the famed Gray Ladies.

Miss Boardman worked in a quiet, assured manner that brought her respect wherever she went. She toured the country -- always at her own expense -- helping communities establish Red Cross chapters and promoting the concept of voluntarism.

Always a volunteer, Mabel Boardman held the title of Secretary of the American National Red Cross. When offered the organization's highest executive position, she refused it. But "Miss Boardman was the chief, make no mistake about that," said people who worked with her in those early days.

With the coming of the First World War, times again were changing. Mabel Boardman kept busy in Red Cross affairs, giving special attention to the Red Cross program of European relief, but other persons assumed the leadership. Through the 1920s and into the forties, the more intimate concerns of local Red Cross work absorbed her interest. Ending her guiding role in the District of Columbia Red Cross Chapter in 1944, Miss Boardman that same year resigned from the national Red Cross governing body.

At a testimonial gathering in 1944, with more than one thousand persons present, the Chief Justice of the United States lauded Mabel Boardman for her devotion to the Red Cross ideal, stating that "her life has been literally dedicated to a single aim -- the development of the Red Cross until it should be what it has become, the greatest and most efficient weapon against human misfortune which the world has known."

Mabel Boardman's success in achieving a strong, truly national Red Cross was due largely to her determination that volunteers should be kept "at the ready" nationwide to provide Red Cross services whenever needed. Now, in the new millennium, the Red Cross volunteer continues to be the heart of the American Red Cross. It is fitting that the Mabel Boardman Fund, established by the American Red Cross, supports special projects related to volunteer service.

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