by Kassidy
Ketron, Intern
Charles
Wilson is 78 years old and, through his volunteer work at the American Red
Cross, has traveled all across the country.
Since he
began volunteering in 2005, he has
done just about everything and been everywhere.
“I’ve been all over the
United States,” Wilson said. “I’ve been to Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi,
Alabama, up there in Indiana, Chicago. Let’s see, New Jersey, Oregon, California. I’ve just about been all over.”
|
Volunteering with the Red Cross can take you
all over. Just ask Charles Wilson. |
In 2004, he retired as a locksmith supervisor at
Texas Christian University and began volunteering with Meals on Wheels, but
that only took about 45 minutes per week.
“I had retired and I didn’t
have anything else to do,” Wilson said, “so I started doing Meals on Wheels, but
that didn’t take but 45 minutes a week. And then after [Hurricane] Katrina, I
decided to check with the Red Cross. I went down there and volunteered and
I had something to do.”
He has done everything from
client casework, to being a member of the disaster action team and to driving emergency response vehicles, which is his favorite.
Wilson said he enjoys
traveling and helping people, which is a perfect combination with the American
Red Cross.
One of his disaster
responses that took him on the road to Arkansas left him with a funny memory.
“They had a tornado come
through there and they’ve got a lot of chicken farms down there. That tornado had came and then it had sucked the feathers off a lot
of these chickens,” Wilson said laughing. “That was the funniest thing I had
ever seen, you know? A chicken with no feathers.”
Although, he has a few
light-hearted memories during disaster responses, some of them have affected
him more than others.
One time in particular, he
said, was during a flood in Haltom City at a trailer park.
“This lady was trying to hold on to the kids, but
the water was so strong that it pulled the kids out of her,” Wilson said. “And
I don’t know if she ever caught them, but she had scratch marks on her arms
where the baby was trying to hold on to her.”
Regardless
of the disaster, he said volunteering for the Red Cross and helping people that
are glad to see you makes it all worth it.
“[It’s
rewarding] helping people in need,” Wilson said. “People that have lost
everything that you can go in and help, just a little bit. That’s rewarding to
me.
This National Volunteer Week, we salute volunteers like Charles, who
make up more than 90 percent of the Red Cross and are the reason we can work
toward our mission every day. To learn about volunteer
opportunities, visit redcross.org to start your Red
Cross story today.
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