Bears Paw District of Red Cross gains strength from merger

On July 1, the Bears Paw District of the American Red Cross became more effective in helping Montana residents, according to local Red chairwoman Vicke Larson.

On that day, all the individual chapters in Montana pooled their efforts under one tent.

"There were 13 individual chapters in the state and they all merged together to become one chapter so we could be more effective around the state," Larson said. "Now we have a central headquarters and, even more importantly, we now have the administrative and financial support to do more in rural areas."

Under the new system, the state was broken up...