American Red Cross volunteers, said President Thomas S. Monson, could adopt as a slogan a rule that was vital as Mormon pioneers introduced irrigation principles to the arid West: "Get the water to the end of the row."

Welcoming more than 2,000 Red Cross delegates to Salt Lake City May 30 for their national convention, President Monson spoke of his longtime admiration for the volunteer organization. "It's a mammoth thing to obtain the contributions in time, in cash and in services," said President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency. "It's a massive thing to get the aid that is necessary to the countries where havoc reigns, but it is really getting the water to the end of the row when you see the Red Cross deliver aid to starving people and to those who are bereft of their homes or their future. I'm proud to be associated with the Red Cross organization."Elder Jon M. Huntsman, an Area Authority Seventy who is chairman and chief executive officer of Huntsman Corp., and a member of the American Red Cross board of governors, introduced President Monson to the delegates at a luncheon in the Salt Palace Convention Center's Grand Ballroom.

Also featured was Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross, who was the concluding speaker at the luncheon.

In his comments, President Monson said he first became acquainted with the Red Cross when he was in elementary school in the middle of the Great Depression. "I became a member of the Junior Red Cross and contributed from my own meager cash what to me was a generous sum to help aid the children of China." He mentioned how proud he had been to wear the Red Cross emblem on his shirt pocket. "I still have it," he declared.

"I'm a former Navy man. I always marveled at the names of the great hospital ships during World War II - Solace, Benevolence, Mercy. On topside of every hospital ship was emblazoned the standard of this organization, the Red Cross, delivering mercy to those who needed mercy, succor to those who needed succor and hope to those who needed hope.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a distinguished and lengthy record of providing humanitarian aid both nationally and internationally to people of all races and religions.

"The Church and the American Red Cross have enjoyed a good working relationship through a formal Statement of Understanding for more than a decade. Recently an updated version of the statement was jointly prepared, further strengthening our relationship."

He said that hundreds of examples of cooperation could be supplied, but he cited just two. The first was the cooperative effort to facilitate the donation of human blood. "Just yesterday, 50 people in our Administration Building went to a designated location and contributed blood," he noted. "On Monday and Tuesday, about 200 more will go each day. We seldom thank them publicly, but without that contribution, other people might very well not have the privilege of life. We are committed, as Church members, to providing this gift of life for people in need." In Utah alone, almost 11,000 units of blood have been donated by Church members this year.

The second cooperative effort engaged in by the Church and Red Cross that he mentioned was their recent work in helping tornado and flood victims in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. "The situation was desperate," he explained. "Thousands of homes were destroyed. Thousands of people had nowhere to go. They had little to eat and only the clothes on their backs. We were pleased that we could have 700 men on the scene and set up in our chapels stations where blood could be given and help could be administered. All this was done in cooperation with the Red Cross.

"It is a marvelous organization you represent. It has been said that when someone gives another person a bouguet, the fragrance of the flowers lingers on the hands of the giver.

"You are the givers," President Monson told those attending the Red Cross convention. "When the flood struck the South, the Red Cross was there. When blood is needed, the Red Cross is there. When any other service is required that lifts mankind, the Red Cross is there. And The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is happy to be there, also, right with all of you and your great organization of volunteers. We are happy to be a partner with the Red Cross in alleviating suffering and restoring faith and hope where doubt and despair might otherwise exist. May our cooperative efforts ever continue."