Members of the Red Cross took part in some important training sessions this weekend in New Jersey.

One of those sessions was held Sunday in Tinton Falls.

A Red Cross director says bringing together its members from different regions helps the volunteers be better prepared when they are deployed to an actual emergency response effort.

"It's a great opportunity for us to network. The benefit is training together and working together, we get to understand how each other works and what we need. And so that really makes us much stronger when we actually do have to move into an activation," says Red Cross Disaster Support Functions Director Lauri Gill.

The training sessions included members of the Red Cross from several states on the East Coast.