American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter

Took the adult and pediatric CPR/​AED and first aid course.
It’s supposed to be a 6 and a half hour class but we got 5 – 10 minute breaks through out, a lunch break, and got out a little early. No complaints on the schedule.
Our instructor was Lisa Hoffman who was just great. Pretty in tuned with the class, clear and descriptive answering questions, hands on, with an energy that keeps the class moving and upbeat.
Overall an easy and informative class that has the time just fly by.
There’s street parking if you can find it, Red Cross has its own but elusive parking garage or so I’ve heard, in the back, or you can opt for the parking garage just a few feet down the street from the office which has a $ 18 flat fee.

American Red Cross, where do I even start? First of all, I just want to thank you guys for everything that you guys do for the community and the world.
This chapter is pretty small, and their parking lot is really hard to find. Their parking lot is behind their building, but lord knows I had a really hard time looking for it. If you don’t want to get lost looking for it, you can always park in front at the Meters. It’s pretty cheap, not too bad.
Every time I go in, I feel like they’re always understaffed, because they will keep you waiting for a while. And to be quite honest, it looks pretty dirty and run down. I also feel like the staff members could be a lot friendlier because every single time that I went in, I wasn’t really greeted, and was kind of left wandering around until I run into the right person, and have to ask the right question.

I needed to take a CPR class ASAP and found a hybrid class run by Red Cross in Oakland where 70% of the class was online and then the rest was onsite. The online portion was very thorough and I learned a lot prior to attending the onsite part of the class.
The Oakland chapter of the American Red Cross looks really sketchy from the outside. It’s old and when we showed up, the front doors were locked with nobody around to open them. It took me knocking for quite a while before somebody showed up and I was afraid I was going to be late for the class. This is why I’m docking them a star.
Once I got situated in the class, things went much better. Our instructor, Mike Houston, was a superstar! VERY informative, friendly, attentive, and thorough. I can’t say enough good things about him and I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to thank him personally before I had to leave. The class covered practice in CPR for adults and infants as well as choking and moving victims around. It all complimented the online components perfectly.
The classroom was clean, well-​organized, and comfortable. The teacher was superb and his helper was also really great.

RED CROSS of Pleasanton is a JOKE. RUDE and not helpful what so ever. I will NEVER walk into that place again. RUDE to my girlfriend, and just plain not a pleasant experience. I didn’t know I needed to be pre qualified to give blood. they let me make an appointment then told me they COULDNT take my blood because I told them my blood was thick. They didn’t explain why they couldn’t in terms I could understand and didn’t even test me to see if I could give blood. So if you decide one day to give blood to help others DONT go to Pleasanton RED CROSS.

Don’t ever give Red Cross your number. Those damn vampires are out for blood and they will NEVER stop calling you. I HATE HATE HATE Red Cross.

This place deleted my post, but I’m writing it again because people deserve to know how this «org» works.
This place is not friendly to hazard victims. My house burned down and when I went to their office first thing monday morning they refused to give me a gift card for relief. They told me that disasters only last 24 hour and that since I waited the weekend I was not eligible. How was I suppose to when its close?! Way to take credit for helping victims, but in the end be cheap. I will never donate or give blood to this organization which claims to be important. During the fire they just walked around looking confused and useless.

I am new to the area so I decided to join Oakland Red Cross.
I was a Red Cross volunteer for 5 years in my homecountry and since I’ve moved to California, I had the wish to continue volunteering because it’s something that I like and makes me happy and I enjoy it.
I’ve scheduled an orientation at the Oakland Red Cross (even though I know ALL about values, history and principles of the Red Cross, even though I finished courses in CPR, Disaster Management, held many workshops myself and organized camps for children without parents, etc, etc… I held those orientations to new volunteers in my country actually). Despite all that, I still wanted to go through the basic training.
The orientation was scheduled for 1pm today. SInce I’m new to the area (like I mentioned), I didn’t realize it’s so far from the Bart on 19^th street so I ended up walking for 35 mins (21 block!!!), caring my heavy purse and my coat. Not to mention that I left my classes in the school I’m attending early so I could come to the orientation.
I arrived at 1.10pm (10 mins late) and the receptionist was like «Sorry, you are late, we don’t let anyone in, you have to schedule a new orientation». I couldn’t believe it and left VERY disapointed. Not to mention that my boyfriend was supposed to pick me up at 4pm (when orientation was suppose to end) so I ended up paying for a taxi home at 1.15pm and he was shocked when he heard they wouldn’t let me in.
I realize it was my fault I was late, but stil.
I came there to give them my free time, energy and help and that is what yoI got?
Red Cross should not and must not work like that.

I went to the Oakland Red Cross last week to get my CPR certification. My Dad, Willy F., also got certified. It was good that he was there so that I could pinch his inner arm anytime someone said something stupid.
I was expecting this to be a horrible, long day, but it was not. The class moved along at a nice clip, without much chance for the stupids to take hold and ask all their stupid questions. Our instructor, Jon Gourdine, was excellent. He really knows his stuff, and seemed to be really happy to be there, which, as a teacher myself, I know goes a really long way. If there’s anyway to make sure he’s your instructor, I would recommend that.
As a mother, I had a very hard time with our unconscious baby dummy. I had a hard time getting through the baby CPR stuff without tearing up imagining my own baby being in trouble.
There is free coffee and a fluorescently lit eating area with tables and vending machines. I would recommend packing a lunch, like we did. We only had a half an hour for lunch, so it was nice not to have to spend part of that time going to buy something.
I needed a place to pump my boobs, and so did another woman in the group. Jon found us a lovely cubicle in back of an office.
CPR is tiring. The muscles in the backs of my legs were sore the next day. If you only take one piece of advice from this review, it should be this: Don’t stand up too fast after practicing your rescue breathing. I saw stars a few times. You wouldn’t want a roomful of people who just learned CPR watch you go down.

I’ve been volunteering with the ARC Bay Area Chapter for a little over a year and highly recommend this service activity to everyone who would like to work with an outstanding humanitarian organization and a great group of people. The Bay Area Chapter is one of the largest in the country and also one of the best. It provides assistance to hundreds of our neighbors every year, and you can also volunteer to participate in state or national relief operations.
There are many volunteer activities (e.g. disaster assistance, preparedness teaching, family services, community relations, partner services, government liaisons, emergency communications, etc.) and the training for all volunteers is first rate. I highly recommend getting involved with this organization!

I went to the American Red Cross in Oakland on Saturday to get my certification for CPR/​AED.
I got there at 5 to 9 and there was a woman outside who was all flustered. She told us our instructor didn’t show up and we now needed to wait until 10 for another instructor. We were told we could leave and come back at 10.
Luckily most of us didn’t leave because 8 minutes later in walked our original instructor who was all flustered because BART was running late.
It’s not like 8 minutes is that late, it’s just annoying because it was so disorganized and the other woman was freaking out and annoyed and told us we could leave and some people did. Luckily they came back 20 minutes later and didn’t miss much.
Our instructor was sooooo slow though. I mean, you could hear a pin drop with all her pauses and ummms. It was actually quite painful and I was wondering if I would need some CPR to revive myself!
It got more interesting when it came time to perform CPR and AED on the dummies and she did get us out almost an hour early, so that was a major plus but I was really disappointed with the disorganization at the center.
I most likely will not return to this site to take a class.

Came here to be re-​certified for advanced cpr.
The location on 2^nd street in SF was booked and this was the only option. I was a bit hesitant at first because the area looked sketchy but the staff there couldn’t have been more welcoming. This place is huge. Bring your lunch. You get free coffee or hot chocolate.
The instructor reminded me of Ben Stein LOL! The course is expensive but you get «freebies». I’m sure there are free course throughout the bay area but the money you spend goes to a good cause. KARMA PEOPLE!!!

Woohoo! None of my digressions or wordplay limbo this time — straightforward liking never felt so great!