Monthly Archives: September 2021

Special guests helped celebrate new Red Cross Blood Donation Center in San Francisco

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed addresses the press. Photo: Eric Carmichael | American Red Cross

This past Monday, September 27, the American Red Cross welcomed local dignitaries and members of the press to celebrate the recent opening of the San Francisco Blood and Platelet Donation Center 1663 Market Street. San Francisco Mayor London Breed thanked the Red Cross for the new community asset and emphasized the need for donors, especially given the current shortage. “You never know the impacts of what your blood can do for someone else.”

The center opened just in time. On September 14, the Red Cross launched a sickle cell initiative to grow the number of blood donors who are Black to help patients with sickle cell disease and improve health outcomes. You can learn more about the Red Cross sickle cell initiative here.   

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Tirtza, Barry and Gumby help out in Gold Country shelter

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Photos and reporting by Barbara Wood

Tirtza and Barry Pearl

Tirtza Pearl of San Francisco figures she has deployed nearly 60 times since she joined the Red Cross in 1991 after the devastating firestorm swept through the hills of neighboring Oakland. Only recently, however, has she convinced her husband, Barry, to join her. Both Pearls worked in a Red Cross shelter in the Cameron Park Community Center in El Dorado County after the Caldor Fire in September. It was Barry’s second deployment.

“The people who volunteer for the Red Cross are an amazing group of people, ” Barry said. “They devote heart and soul to the clients.” 

Barry says, so far, he’s only deployed with Tirtza. “I feel much more confident of all her years of experience,” he said.  “I’m still learning the ropes.” 

In addition to recruiting her husband, Tirtza has brought another special guest along on at least ten deployments – Gumby. The stretchy green figure represents the unofficial motto of the Red Cross “Semper Gumby” or “Forever Flexible.”

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Love thy neighbor, a good approach

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Natalie and Merlin

Natalie Allstead first donated blood in high school, almost ten years ago. “Part of it was a chance to get out of history class,” she says. “And they give you cookies afterward!” She donated regularly throughout high school and then returned to donating after graduating college.

“I’m not super religious,” she says. “But I stick to the values of my childhood – and love thy neighbor is a pretty good approach to most things. People have value – they don’t have to prove anything to deserve this care.”

Natalie says that giving blood is only mildly uncomfortable but fulfilling overall. She’s even taken friends with her on occasion to make it a social event. When not giving blood, Natalie works in marketing as a writer. She volunteers where she can, loves to play Animal Crossing and “chilling” with her cat, Merlin.

She keeps it all pretty simple.

“I try and confront myself with the question: ‘What if it was a stranger, would it matter less?” Natalie adds, “Thankfully no one [in my family] has ever needed that kind of care but someone else’s family has.”

Thanks for your lifesaving donations, Natalie!

Lisa Ann Rohr, American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) Program Manager Returns from Iraq

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Narrated to Lawrence D. Dietz, Public Affairs Officer, Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region

SAF Mobile Staff, Team 44
(Masks required in Germany)

Lisa Ann Rohr was one of nine Red Cross SAF Mobile personnel who left the U.S. for overseas duty from August 2020 to April 2021. Lisa Ann was one of two Red Crossers initially stationed in Iraq, at the diplomatic post Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center (BDSC).

Lisa Ann’s core U.S. roles and responsibilities for SAF in the Northern California Coastal Region of the Red Cross are Follow-up Casework, Military Treatment Facility (MTF) programs, including Licensed Medical Volunteer placement, and Military Entrance Processing Station Briefing program management.

As for deployments, Red Cross SAF Mobile Staff are assembled into rotating deployment teams from Continental US and Outside Continental U.S. Red Cross regions for a six-month mission. Lisa Ann, with her eight colleagues, were known as Team 44.

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