Crace is out as executive director of Red Cross

Crace’s daughter, Charity Leonard, said the board ‘‘terminated” Crace because Crace did not support a fundraiser the board felt should occur. She would not specify which one.

Leonard and her sister, Jennifer Hill, wrote a letter to the editor in The Frederick News-Post on Monday, questioning the board’s decision. Neither are employees or volunteers of the Red Cross.

‘‘She felt like what was going to happen did not match the values she held for Red Cross,” Leonard said.

She directed questions about the specific fundraiser to Crace.

Tim Jones, Crace’s husband, said Monday that Crace would be out of town this week and unable to comment.

The Red Cross’s 15-member board of directors last week appointed Nick Geier, the director of health and safety for the American Red Cross of Central Maryland, which encompasses Baltimore and five surrounding counties, as acting executive director.

Geier took over on Monday. He said he would oversee the operations of the chapter’s six full-time staffers and 350 volunteers until the board hires a new executive director.

‘‘[The volunteers are] the ones that make things happen,” Geier said.

There are more than 700 local chapters of the American Red Cross, according to the Web site for the American Red Cross. Civil War nurse Clara Barton founded the organization in 1881 after visiting Europe.

The American Red Cross, based in Washington, D.C., is a national emergency response organization with more than 500,000 volunteers and 30,000 employees.

It also provides community services, support for military members and their families, blood donations, CPR and safety classes.

The Frederick County Chapter was founded in 1917. In 2006, it moved into a 16,000-square-foot building on Walkersville’s Frederick Street. The building contains a museum that counts among its exhibits some of Barton’s letters.