After Months of Non-Stop Disaster Response, American Red Cross Seeks New Volunteers to Help Storm Victims

Rash of Weather Events Deplete Local Resources

Mother Nature was harsh this past spring. She left more than 2,000 Texas families without homes, caused the Red Cross to open 60 shelters, hand out more than 340,000 meals and snacks along with 171,000 clean-up items like shovels, tarps, rakes, mops, buckets and work gloves. Her relentless nature was responded to by a force of nature made up of 2,200 trained Red Cross relief workers from around the country, with nearly half being Texans. 

Now, the Red Cross is offering virtual training courses in an attempt to recruit new volunteers to deliver their mission critical services. 

“Because the sun is shining doesn’t mean this disaster has passed,” said T.D. Smyers, chief executive officer, American Red Cross North Texas Region. “It’s quite the opposite actually. Our teams will be managing the statewide Red Cross call center, conducting disaster assessments and providing casework services most likely up through August, which is why we’re appealing for new volunteers to come join us.”

Virtual training courses are being offered this weekend in the following areas:

June 27	Orientation to Texas Disaster	9:00am-10:00am
	Caseworker: Just in Time	10:00am-12:30pm
	Disaster Assessment: Just in Time	2:30pm-3:30pm
	Sheltering: Just in Time	3:30pm-4:30pm
June 29	Orientation to Texas Disaster	9:00am-10:00am 6:30pm-7:30pm
	Sheltering: Just in Time	10:00am-11:00am 7:30pm-8:30pm
	Disaster Assessment: Just in Time	11:00am-Noon 8:30pm-9:30pm
	Casework: Just in Time	1:00pm-3:30pm 6:30pm-9:00pm

To register as a new Red Cross volunteer, go to http://www.redcross.org/tx/dallas-fort-worth/volunteer and click on ARC Flood Relief. From there, you'll receive instructions on how to register for the virtual training. All Red Cross disaster training courses are FREE, compliments of Red Cross donors who make the mission possible. 

“My team here in North Texas has literally been working around the clock since mid-April and they’ve done an honorable job for Texans,” said Smyers. “We need some more just like them to carry us through the second half of this disaster.”

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Stitching the Legacy of the American Red Cross

by David Warren, volunteer contributor

Saturday, June 13th is National Sewing Day, for generations seamstresses and tailors across the country have donated their time and talent to the American Red Cross. Here in the Dallas/Fort Worth service area we are privileged to still have a fully functioning production room. 

Working with Roosevelt-era equipment can make people grouse, even the ladies of the Red Cross’ Production Room. 

When sewing and knitting hundreds of baby blankets, caps and gowns, quilts, slippers and other handmade items; it’s essential to have sewing machines that hum. But the ones used in the Production Room operated as smoothly as a failing presidential campaign. 

Marcia Bauer, lead volunteer of the Production Room, put some change together and arranged for two new ones. The ladies of the room are humming to a steadier beat, while stitching together the garments that bring comfort to those at delicate points in their lives. 

“We’re the only existing production room supported by a Red Cross chapter,” Bauer explains. 

The rooms were a staple of many Red Cross chapters during World War II as volunteers assembled bags of socks, knitted caps and other items for soldiers. When the war ended, the Production Room for the American Red Cross North Texas Region turned more of its attention locally. 

Hundreds of hand-made comfort items were provided for infants and others at hospitals in the Metroplex. Cloth covers and baby blankets went to neonatal intensive care units, lap robes and slippers went to adult patients, and others benefited from specialty items like wheelchair caddies. Some clothes are created as final garments for stillborn infants. 

Occasionally, large quilts and blankets are sent to the Ronald McDonald House near the Red Cross offices in Dallas. Other knitted caps go to the Salvation Army. 

It seems those who volunteer with Bauer seldom have idle hands. In the fiscal year ending June 2014, more than 30 people and about a dozen groups volunteered more than 21,700 hours to produce a list of items as long as Jack’s beanstalk: more than 2,600 baby caps, 145 security blankets, 524 pillows, 170 caps and scarves, more than 700 cooling neck wraps. And that’s just a sampling. 

Bauer says generally about five volunteers gather each Tuesday morning to sew, and that another 30 or so work from their homes. Bauer began volunteering in the Production Room in 1996 and says it’s become “a never-ending flow of things” made by her volunteers. 

“The hospitals take it all and they want more,” says Bauer, a Dallas resident and the mother of two grown daughters, both of whom contribute to the Production Room. 

Bauer said it’s fulfilling to provide a measure of comfort to people in need of aid or at a difficult point in their lives. 

“I just get a great satisfaction from helping people,” she says. 

But Bauer believes a high standard has been set for her. The Production Room is named for Albina Young, who devoted more than 50 years of service to the Red Cross. Few others have committed more of their time or shown more selflessness. 

“With a model like that to live up to, you feel like 20 years is nothing,” Bauer said.

If you know of a sewing group interested in partnering with the Production Room, contact us online at www.redcross.org/DFW.

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March Forth - Do Something Day

by Carmen Wright, volunteer contributor
 

March Fourth is Do Something Day, and we encourage you to let that something be volunteering. Why volunteer? Well, aside from helping someone else, volunteering can actually benefit your health and personal development.

In an article for Harvard Health Publications, editor Stephanie Watson outlines some of the benefits of volunteering:

•    Improves mental health because you feel socially connected.
•    Lowers blood pressure, either because it incorporates physical activities or because it reduces stress.
•    Helps you live longer because of improved health.

Maybe you think you're too busy to volunteer. Well, volunteering can also help your personal and professional development. This great TED talk by Tuan Nguyen shares some great examples of incorporating volunteer activities with work. According to Nguyen, volunteering can help you:

•    Learn gratitude.
•    Find passion.
•    Improve your creativity.
•    Become more efficient by learning to maximize resources.
•    Improve your confidence, which helps you gain leadership skills.

But whether you benefit physically, mentally, or professionally, the key to volunteering is to make your motivations genuinely altruistic. By focusing on helping someone else, you create positive energy that affects everyone around you, including yourself.

So march forth, and be good to yourself by being good to others! Learn more about volunteer opportunities at the Red Cross.

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Inside a Red Cross Response to a Dallas Apartment Fire

By Kay Pinkerton, volunteer contributor

A tenant’s burning candles led to a predawn blaze Saturday, April 12, at the Mayan Palms apartment complex located in Southeast Dallas.  The four-alarm fire consumed 36 apartments, destroying the homes and possessions of more than 50 tenants.

Thankfully, no deaths were reported. 

The American Red Cross was on the scene, offering blankets, safe shelter and emotional support to the fire victims.

A Mayan Palms tenant wrapped herself in a Red Cross blanket after escaping the flames that ripped through her apartment.  Her relative, Virginia Reyez, later searched for the woman’s belongings in the tangled debris of wood, glass and metal -- all that remained of the apartment.  Reyez used the same Red Cross blanket to wrap and protect a surprising find.    

The woman’s jewelry box.

“It’s one of the most valuable things she owns now,” said Reyez.

 Being Grateful

The Red Cross opened a shelter at Samuel Grand Recreation Center after the fire was contained.  There, Red Cross volunteers provided information, support and a listening ear to fire victims who had lost their homes. 

Inside the shelter, Minnie Sessions sat in a row of chairs next to her son and his wife.

"I was asleep, woke up and smelled smoke. And I said, 'I know I ain't cooked,'" recalled Minnie.
­­­
She walked into the living room of her apartment. "I went in there and seen all that smoke," she said. "I grabbed a tub of clothes and drug them out with me."

Minnie's son, Freddie Sessions, admitted he felt overwhelmed by the day’s events. Still, he was grateful for his mother’s life, and appreciated the help and support she had received.

"She didn't have a jacket, and someone gave my mother a jacket,” he said. "There are good people out there.  To see them come out, you know, and help her. To be there for her.”

“I'm very grateful for the Red Cross organization,” said Sessions.

Helping Your Neighbor

Back at the scene of the fire, a young apartment resident surveyed the damage while recalling that morning’s frightening events. 

“I hear all this, this screaming.  ‘Fire!’  I woke my baby up, and we went outside,” said the woman.  “I saw a guy get one person out.  They had to break the fence down to get him out because he was on a cane.”

The woman was saddened by the devastating loss.  

“My apartment’s okay,” she said.  “But our friends?  Our close neighbors are going through this.  And there’s nothing we can do.”

At the Red Cross, there is something we can do. 

Red Cross disaster relief helps victims get back on their feet and resume their lives as quickly as possible. The organization also supports emergency workers, links family members outside the disaster area, and provides blood and blood products to disaster victims. 

For more information about the Red Cross and its services, or to learn how you can help, visit www.redcross.org/dfw.

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Volunteers Carry on Tradition of Knitting, Sewing and Crocheting for a Good Cause

by Heather Wedel, Communications Specialist, American Red Cross North Texas Region

Knitting, sewing and crocheting have been tools American Red Cross volunteers have been using since World War II to give back. For active soldiers, Red Cross volunteers would knit wool socks to help prevent trench foot and to give the soldiers a sense of comfort and love from home. 

The tradition has carried on now for more than 80 years and is still going strong in the Dallas Area Chapter. Every Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., volunteers come to the chapter and dedicate their time to produce over 40 individual items. The items made include: layettes for newborns and still-borns, baby caps and booties, blankets, slippers, wheel chair caddies, bibs, chemotherapy caps, cooling neck wraps for soldiers and more. 

Charlotte, a Red Cross volunteer for more than 30 years,
 with one of her specialty items, a "Textured Worm"
 used as a comfort item for children in the hospital

A "Special Layette" which will go to Parkland Hospitals
for still-born babies

Around 36 volunteers help with this initiative, with an average of five volunteers in the production room every Tuesday, and the rest working remotely from all around North Texas, from the Panhandle to the far east. The items made go to Parkland Hospital, Children's Medical Center, Veteran's Administration Medical Center, Ronald McDonald House, Camp Maxey Canteen, USO, Medical City Dallas and St. Vincent DePaul Society. 

The production room, now named "Albina's Production Room" is named after the team's previous volunteer leader, Albina Young. Albina and her husband Bob were passionate and dedicated volunteers to the Red Cross, volunteering for almost 50 years. Albina and her husband were over 90-years-old when they stopped volunteering due to injuries in a car accident. 

When Albina retired from team leader, Marcia Bauer took over the role. After Marcia moved back to the Dallas area, and her children were grown, she began looking for volunteer opportunities. She recalls her husband recommending the Red Cross and her reacting with "Well yeah, I know, I'm aware of the Red Cross...," but then her husband said, "But did you know you could sew at the Red Cross?" 

"Realizing I could actually use my talent to help the Red Cross is what got me to get involved," said Marcia. 

Marcia has been asked to speak at several volunteer recognition events to share her Red Cross experience. At one event, Marcia mentioned that she needed to learn how to knit, and the next Tuesday she walked into the production room to find a basket with knitting materials and instructional books from the Red Cross. 

When asking Marcia why she volunteers, she stated, "They need me, and I enjoy being here, I enjoy the people, and I get to do what I like, which is sewing and knitting." Another volunteer, Julie Muse, jokingly chimed in, "and talking." 

From left to right: Marcia Bauer, Charlotte Kleinfelder and Julie Muse

"The one thing I always point out is that we deal in comfort," said Marcia. "But the one time we deal in disaster is providing layettes for the still-born babies, because that is a gigantic disaster. But just thinking about all of the things we do, all of them provides some form of comfort."

Julie Muse, a Red Cross volunteer working with a handmade piece

The day we visited the production room three ladies were sewing, knitting and crocheting: Marcia who has been volunteering for more than 15 years, Charlotte who has been volunteering for more than 30 years and Julie who has been volunteering at the Red Cross for two years. 

The production room volunteers have been recognized at many events, and the American Red Cross Dallas Area Chapter is so glad to have them! If you'd like to volunteer in the production room or are interested in other Red Cross volunteer opportunities, visit RedCross.org. 

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Red Cross Impacting Lives at Tyler, TX Veteran's Home

by Heather Wedel, Communications Specialist, American Red Cross North Texas Region

This month, American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces volunteers spent time at the Watkins Logan State Veteran's Home in Tyler, TX installing wheelchair accessible raised gardening beds for the veterans.

Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) includes linking military families during times of emergency, connecting families with local community resources, providing resiliency training and supporting wounded warriors and military hospitals.

Since the partnership began between the veteran's home and the Red Cross in 2012, the Red Cross has been assigned Cottage D which houses ten veterans, two of which are bedridden, one capable of walking and the rest in wheelchairs. 

Service to the Armed Forces volunteer Julie McDaniel has been volunteering since 2012 at the home and has been hoping to provide the veterans with the raised gardening beds for the last several months. 

"The gardening beds will help get the less mobile veterans outside," said Julie. "With the gardening bed being raised, the veterans in wheelchairs can pull right up underneath it. I think this will give them a chance to feel like they have ownership of something." 

Red Cross volunteers Julie and Jim helped assemble the gardening beds

Julie often plans events for the veterans such as holiday and birthday parties, and says that she enjoys cooking for them when she gets a chance. Now Julie will be able to involve the veterans in picking fresh vegetables from the gardening beds. You can read here about Julie's dedication to the veteran's home. 

The raised gardening beds aren't all that the Red Cross has been doing at the veteran's home. Several volunteers dedicate their time to Cottage D, such as Stacy Gore who is head of the Red Cross youth club. The youth club came out to the veteran's home around Easter to hide eggs and enjoy a picnic with the men at the home. They also came during the holiday season to sing carols. 

Roger Middleton, another Red Cross volunteer has been working with one of the veterans on his dream to write and publish a novel. Roger, who is a member of the local writer's club, is helping the veteran get his work typed and saved on a computer, in hopes that the novel will one day be published. 

"We continue to be so thankful for volunteers like these year-round. The joy that these volunteers bring the veterans is such a blessing to see," stated Jennifer Cato, Services to the Armed Forces and International Services Field Specialist. "Volunteers make up more than 90 percent of the Red Cross and they're the reason we can work toward our mission."

Texas is home to 1.7 million veterans, the second largest population in the country. This week, between Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day, the Red Cross invites you to help us continue to provide vital services to thousands of military service members, veterans and their families each year, keeping military families connected during emergencies, connecting families with local resources and supporting wounded warriors and military hospitals. Join us in #HonoringHeroes. Visit Crowdrise.com/HonoringHeroes for more information.

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A Message From CEO T.D. Smyers: Unique New Way to Donate

by T.D. Smyers, CEO, American Red Cross North Texas Region

T.D. Smyers

As I write this message, nearly 40 American Red Cross volunteers from across the North Texas Region are deployed to help families with storm recovery in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas and North Florida as part of the massive 13-state response to last week's tornadoes and floods. Volunteers are crucial to our mission in helping people in their time of need, making it possible for the Red Cross to respond to nearly 70,000 disasters each year. We know that not everyone can immediately rush to another state, but there are many other ways to help.

As always, you can visit RedCross.org to donate or text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10. Or, you can donate a vehicle. In February of this year, the Red Cross launched our Vehicle Donation Program, partnering with Insurance Auto Auctions (IAA). The program converts unneeded vehicles into Red Cross donations.

Have an older car in the garage that isn't being used? You may think that your old, beat-up vehicle is worthless, but the donation of that car could be priceless to someone in need of Red Cross services.

To make it easier on you, the donation is tax deductible and we'll provide free pick-up and towing. We accept cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, boats, snowmobiles, jet skis, tractors, farm equipment and more, in any condition -- even salvaged.

Do you know someone that may be interested? To donate a vehicle, contact the Red Cross online at RedCross.org or call 1-855-92 RC CAR (927-2227) to make arrangements. An IAA representative will pick up your vehicle at a time that's convenient to you and at no cost. Once the vehicle is sold, they'll provide you with a tax receipt on behalf of the Red Cross.

It's that simple. With storm season ramping up, we need your help more than ever. Follow updates about the Red Cross response on www.redcross.org/dfw and on Twitter at @RedCrossDFW. Thanks so much for your support.

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