Red Cross Volunteer Makes 97 Look Very Young

If you give blood on Tuesdays or Fridays at the Blood Donor Center in Wichita, Kan. you probably know Bertha (Bill) Brown. Currently, she works in the Refreshment Area, giving each person a cold drink and snack after their donation. But this Tuesday was a special day — it was Brown’s 97th birthday. When she arrived at the American Red Cross, she was greeted with a cake, a plant and many well wishes. One blood donor even sang her a song. Brown has been a CPR volunteer for the past 26 years – longer than some of her “customers” at the donor center have been alive – and she’s accumulated more than 7,500 volunteer hours, so far. Brown says she keeps pretty busy working at her church, Sharon Baptist Church, playing Bridge several times a week, doing yard work and working at the Red Cross. To see her in action, you’d never guess her age but in Brown’s case you know it really is just a number. She says with this birthday, “I’m going to start going backwards.” Great idea. Happy Birthday, Bill!

Bergen County Youth Support Homeless Vets

Red Cross youth volunteers from Bergen County sorted and packaged clothing for almost 100 homeless veterans. Along with Volunteer Youth Coordinators, Rebecca Harper and Joanne Hamill, and Bergen & Hudson Counties Volunteer Manager Thereza Schwarz, the youth volunteers joined forces to bring a little comfort to some of our local veterans. The clothing was purchased by the chapter. Volunteers Everett Wise and Dave Everson, along with Senior Program Director Sue Franson, delivered the packages to the Lyons VA hospital, just in time for Veteran’s Day.

High School Students Gather Coats in Classmate’s Honor

17 year old Amber Lynn Shaw was a dedicated supporter of the American Red Cross who spent many weeks collecting coats as part of a school service project. Sadly, Amber passed away last month in a car wreck before she could complete the project. In honor of her memory and hard work, Amber’s classmates at the Service Learning and Civic Engagement class at Chain of Lakes Collegiate High School took up her cause and completed the project.

Amber’s classmates will present the coats to the Polk County Chapter of the American Red Cross at the school located at 99910 Avenue H, N.E. in Winter Haven. The coats will then be picked up by a charity clothing company and eventually sold at consignment. Money generated by the sale will benefit the Red Cross humanitarian mission and services.

Amber came up with the fundraising idea after a member of the local Red Cross spoke to her class. She also learned about the new American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region program to collect clothes and other items through a partnership with Charity Clothing Pickup Florida, a branch of Merchandise Pickup Services.

The company sells the donations to thrift stores, and then gives a portion of the proceeds to local non-profit organizations.

In the past, the American Red Cross has not collected clothes, especially during disasters, because of the time and effort involved in collecting, cleaning, sorting, and repackaging such items, as well as the cost of storing and transporting them. Fortunately, Charity Clothing Pickup, and not the American Red Cross, handles all the details.

The clothing pickup partnership started in May, and has proven successful in helping sustain the needs of the Mid-Florida Region, an area covering four Red Cross chapters and 13 counties. Neighborhood pickups are taking place in communities in Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties. There are also nine drop boxes in the Orlando and Kissimmee area, including two drop boxes at the Red Cross offices in both cities, with plans to place drop boxes in other communities in the Mid-Florida Region.

While The American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region is participating in the Charity Clothing Pickup Program, the Red Cross will not accept or solicit small, individual donations of items for emergency relief purposes.

New Jersey Volunteers Honored

The Camden County American Red Cross held its 92nd Annual Volunteer Awards Dinner and Heroes tribute on Dec. 2, 2009. Among those honored was Post 126, Jewish War Veterans of Cherry Hill, NJ. The post has a long history of activism and recently held a Veterans Day Dinner Dance to benefit military organizations and our Red Cross Chapter. They presented us with a check for $3,000 for our work. On Thanksgiving, this same organization hosted its Annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the troops, bringing over hundreds of men and women to Cherry Hill, NJ from Ft. Dix who are waiting deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. These troops were far from home and were utterly awestruck when they arrived at a local hotel and saw over 1,000 persons greeting them, including volunteers from our Chapter, Scouts and people from all walks of life. The vets and their wives prepared and served a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, distributed gifts and led spirited trivia contests. They were joined also by pro athletes from the 76ers and Flyers. The Jewish War Veterans Post and our Chapter will work together on a Valentines’ Party for families of deployed and look forward to continued collaboration to benefit others.

Help When a Home Fire Occurs

In December the Greater Salt Lake Area Chapter of the American Red Cross helped a family of four after a fire at their apartment in Salt Lake City. American Red Cross disaster action team volunteers Kathy Luke and Wendy Griffen helped the father and three sons with immediate essential needs like clothing, food and shelter. The family woke up to the smell of smoke and escaped safely. Vince Munquia and his 3 boys ages 20, 17 and 14 said they were grateful for the Red Cross assistance.

Next door, Jonathon Chavis and his wife Brittany woke up and smelled the fire. They ran through smoke and a heavy downpour of water from the sprinkler system to evacuate their apartment at about 4 o’clock in the morning. They appreciated the Red Cross help with shelter and food to get them by until they can return to their home. Jonathan said, “It was surreal! We got soaked and were standing outside freezing in 20 degree weather. We were surprised to find out the Red Cross could help us. Surprised and grateful.” The Chavises are from North Carolina, and thought the Red Cross only helped people in major disasters like hurricanes, “We didn’t know the Red Cross helps people in small disasters like ours.”

Red Cross volunteer Kathy Luke said, “Whether it is a major disaster affecting thousands of people or a small house or apartment fire affecting a few people, it is still a serious event for the individuals involved. Everyone needs shelter, food and clothing and they appreciate the fact that someone is there to help and someone cares.”

Pictured in photo: Jonathan Chavis in the red baseball cap. Disaster Action Volunteer Kathy Luke in the pink sweater.

Photo by Volunteer Photographer Todd Keith

SEPA Chapter Honors More Than 600 Volunteers

The American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter honored more than 600 of its 12,288 volunteers with dinner and an awards ceremony. The annual event, called the “Celebration of Volunteers,” recognizes the generosity of the chapter’s volunteers and their crucial role in fulfilling the mission of the organization. Award recipients included Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and Meredith Buck, recipient of the 2009 Florence Nightingale Medal. In addition, 32 chapter volunteers received President’s Voluntary Service Awards, signed by President Barack Obama, for dedicating more than 4,000 hours to volunteer service.

Volunteer Recounts the Day His Garage Burned Down

One Family’s Disaster Story
…from serving to being served…

It was a beautiful Summer day, low 80’s, dry, sunny and a nice breeze was blowing from the west. The fourth of July fell on a Saturday in 2009 and this was Friday, the beginning of a long weekend and hopefully a great summer for our family. We own a nice little cape in a small city in Massachusetts, with four small bedrooms, two bathrooms and a detached two car garage (with a breezeway roof connection). The house is a blessing and we love the quiet neighborhood and the neighbors are great. We planned a cookout with friends that day and were glad the weather was going to be perfect, after a very rainy week. The food was good, the weather was perfect and we were having a great time – when disaster stuck.

I was at the kitchen sink, cleaning up after our cookout at about 3pm, when my 16 year old daughter ran in the house panicked – “Dad the garage is on fire”. I immediately thought, sure Kristen, don’t over-react, I’m sure it’s something small. I did rush out the back door though and was greeted by 4’ flames running up the rear shelf, inside our garage. I was horrified. Both of our cars, were literally inches away from the fire and thick, black smoke had already filled the ceiling and attic of the garage. I remember the acrid smell and sound of crackling, burning wood so clearly, even now.

I immediately shouted to my wife for car keys, as she was coming out of the back door. She panicked and brought me a small fire extinguisher. I said No, we need to move the cars, the fire’s too big. She dropped the fire extinguisher in shock, as she saw the flames behind me. Seconds seem like hours when you are waiting during a crisis. The fire was roaring now and I remembered the 3 camping propane tanks on the shelves that could explode at any time. We both jumped in the cars, started them up and backed out of the garage. Except I could only go so far before our friend’s cars were in my way – thankfully, Cindy got away cleanly. They scrambled to find their keys and by the time I finally backed out, the front end was melted and smoldering. Lumps of melted plastic had dripped onto the hood and even my ankle was hit and burning. I never felt it though, I was too focused on getting the cars out in time, without blowing up.

I parked the car around the corner, to give the firefighters room to park and then thought, I hope somebody called the Fire Department. Thankfully, both our teen daughters called and I could hear the sirens as I walked back to the front of the house.

The garage was fully engulfed by this time, with the popping sound of propane tanks and aerosols exploding. I considered grabbing the hose and spraying down the house, but I was sure the firefighters would yell at me for getting in the way. By now, the neighbors were all over the place just staring in dis-belief. Cindy and I were in a dream-like state and everything was happening in slow motion. The girls were crying, our friends looked bewildered and shocked. People asked if we were okay and I was like huh?, yeah, I guess. I think so. My lungs were burning and my ankle hurt for the first time, as I realized I had a big second degree burn blister on the front of my ankle. We were all okay though and we wandered around aimlessly.

The second feeling I had was guilt. I had let my family down. Whatever caused the fire (I presumed it was my stereo, since it was running all day) was my responsibility. The garage especially was my domain and I had somehow been stupid enough to allow a blazing fire to erupt and it had to be neglect of some kind. Our neighbors were great, especially the Deneens across the street. Tom is a firefighter himself and helped me work through the feelings of helplessness, guilt and the unknown. In a matter of 10 minutes, our lives were turned upside down, with the thought of possibly losing our home completely.

Thankfully, the firefighters knocked down the flames quickly and saved the house. It took many hours to knock out the smoldering wood though. The heat had been intense. So hot was the fire that the grass around the garage had burned, a large pine tree had been singed and even our neighbor’s siding, 50 feet away was melted. Days later, the official cause was undetermined, but the probable culprit was an outlet that had overheated, since the flames started there. I had both the stereo and a battery charger plugged in and the firefighters suggested we should use plug strips, with surge protection shutoff in the future. The firefighters had to shut off the power to the house in case another outlet, or electrical feeds were compromised in the fire.

Since it was a long holiday weekend, they offered to call the American Red Cross to help us. The Red Cross truck arrived later that afternoon and they gave us comfort kits (basic hygiene bags with a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, comb, deodorant, etc) and offered to find a hotel for us to stay in. They were great, they even called the local hotel and set us up for three free nights. The house was dark and smelled like plastic smoke when we went in and grabbed our clothes. The garage was now a black mass of burned wood, but the house was okay. I was still in a daze when we drove to the hotel, Cindy and I couldn’t sleep, but we were safe and having a clean and quiet place to go, was all we needed those nights. Thank you Red Cross, for being there on a holiday weekend and offering our family shelter, after our disaster.

Today, the Herrmann family has re-built the garage and replaced many of the items lost, like camping gear. The car is fixed and there are smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and plug strips throughout the new garage. They are thankful for the Marlborough Fire Department, their awesome neighbors, homeowners Insurance, good Contractors and The American Red Cross. Most especially God, for saving them from a fire that could have easily happened at night.

You may think that disasters don’t happen in your area. You may have never experienced a flood, ice storm, hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, like me. I was skeptical of the need to prepare for disaster, but it can happen to you, or your neighbor. Please sign up for free Red Cross disaster training and learn the basics of disaster preparedness. You and your neighbors need to know how to handle it and prepare for it, before it happens.

Thank you,
Bob Herrmann
HOPE worldwide volunteer

New Vehicle Allows Red Cross to Serve Hot Drinks to Hundreds Waiting for H1N2 Shots

The American Red Cross of Central Massachusetts in Worcester has a new Emergency Response Vehicle. At the first H1N1 clinic in Worcester people lined up from 8:00 a.m. waiting for the clinic to open at 4:00 p.m. The Red Cross served over 1,400 cups of hot chocolate and coffee as people stood outside. An additional nine volunteers worked inside the clinic at registration and screenings, under the chapter’s newly signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Medical Reserve Corps. This was the maiden voyage of the Mobile Feeding Unit. The $129,000 vehicle, fully funded by the Homeland Security Council and MMRS, is equipped with a 6 burner stove, grill, refrigerator and 4 sinks.

Photos courtesy of the Worcester Telegram.

Jacksonville’s Life Saving Corps Has Saved Thousands

The American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps (VLSC) celebrated their 98th year at their Annual Banquet; giving special awards to 13 members, as well as 27 Merits for Rescue and 13 Assists. The VLSC in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, is the oldest, and now the only, operating volunteer life saving corps in the United States. Since 1912, lifeguards at this station have been responsible for saving thousands of lives.

Successful Babysitting Camp

The American Red Cross of Burlington County, New Jersey, held a very successful Babysitter Camp. Attendees spent the mornings completing Babysitter Training, Child and Infant CPR and First Aid courses, snack and lunch. Then campers spent each three-hour afternoon with infants to school age children at a nearby daycare facility, working with a different age group each day. The future Babysitters planned games, practiced bottle feeding and diaper changing, helped with children’s snacks, applied sunblock, and played with the children under the supervision of the daycare’s staff and a Red Cross staff member. Local organizations provided scholarships for some participants.