Monthly Archives: June 2023

Pay It Forward

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“I truly feel honored to share my story to maybe help just one person!”

Kathie Reinholds of Brentwood is a big believer in “paying it forward.” More than 50 years ago, as a teenager in Hayward, she won an award for her volunteer work with the American Red Cross. Decades later, the Red Cross was able to pay Kathie back for her selfless work – not once, but twice!

Kathie’s home in Paradise, Calif., before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018.

On November 8, 2018, Kathie was sound asleep in her home in Paradise, California. She lived alone, having lost her husband Gary four years earlier. What happened to her that morning is what she calls “a story and a half.”

“Something woke me up and I thought it was the middle of the night,” says Kathie.  “I looked at my phone and it was 8 a.m. Normally I would roll over, but something pushed me up. I like to think it was my husband, my guardian angel.”

Kathie ran outside and found a strange scene.

The eerie glow from the Camp Fire on the morning of November 8, 2018.

“I was up on a hill and overlooked everything.  It was the weirdest red sky.  I thought it was a cool sunrise.”

What she saw was the smoke and flames from the Camp Fire, which raced through Paradise that morning, killing 85 people and destroying much of the town.

“We had no system in place to learn that there was a fire. All the emergency towers burned down; it just spread so fast.”

Kathie credits a neighbor for saving her life.

“She called me and said, ‘Get out now, kiddo!’”

Kathie managed to throw a few things into her car but could not find her cat and had to leave her behind. She drove through the burning town, sitting in gridlock, then on to Chico, Sacramento, and finally Lodi, where she met up with her grown children.

The burnt remains of Kathie’s Paradise home.

Kathie was able to return to Paradise the following month but found her home had burned to the ground and her cat had disappeared. 

“It was horrible,” she says, choking up. “That same month I almost died. I had a heart attack. I think I’m on maybe my fourth life,” Kathie says, laughing through her tears.   “I don’t know how many ‘Get Out of Jail’ cards I get but I’ve used quite a few!”

Kathie says she received financial help from FEMA and from the Red Cross. “They also had a table for travel-sized personal needs that became a staple in part of my many trips to Paradise and recreating my life.”

Kathie finally was able to create that new life for herself at a mobile home park in Brentwood in Contra Costa County. “I couch surfed for several months and moved five times before I landed the house in Brentwood. This experience either makes you humble and grateful or angry. I choose humble!”

Red Cross volunteers installing free smoke alarms in Kathie’s Brentwood community.

Five years after that devastating wildfire, Kathie once again connected with the American Red Cross.  Volunteers with the Red Cross Sound the Alarm program came to her mobile home park this April to install free smoke alarms for residents.

Kathie says, “I was so thrilled.  My ceilings are really high.  I’m thinking, ‘how I am I going to do this?’”

The volunteer crews put in several new smoke alarms in her home.  When they learned she was hard of hearing, they arranged for another crew to return and install a “bed shaker” alarm.  This specialized device includes a vibrating pad that can be placed under a pillow or mattress.  The bed shaker connects to other alarms in a home and features a strobe light that can rouse people who are deaf or hard of hearing.   

Now, Kathie tells us she feels much safer in her new home.  “Oh yes, absolutely!  I know at any time, anything can happen, when you least expect it, I know it.  I will be forever grateful to the Red Cross.”

Kathie still believes in the Red Cross values she learned in high school and the lessons from the Camp Fire.  “I have a ‘pay it forward closet.’  That closet contains a rotating supply of pots, pans, linens and other items for people in need.  “Everyone should have one!”

To learn more about preparing for a home or wildfire, visit redcross.org/prepare.

Empowering Young Hearts

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Fifth Graders Fundraise for Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relief

By Pooja Klebig

The students in Ms. Mary Horath’s 5th grade class at Gateway School in Santa Cruz were moved to help when they heard about the 7.8 magnitude Turkey-Syria earthquake on February 6, 2023. The quake impacted an area nearly the size of Germany, affecting 14 million people and leaving 1.5 million homeless; nearly 60,000 people lost their lives.

Gateway School students pose with their donation “check,” Red Cross Chapter CEO Michele Averill (center) and teacher Mary Horath (right). Photo by Virginia Becker/American Red Cross

“We were studying about the earthquake in our current events. That’s when we decided to help,” said student Rachel Fisher when asked what motivated the class to help.

The students held a school-wide walk-a-thon to raise money for disaster relief and response efforts. They went door-to-door to collect pledges, put up posters, and encouraged their classmates to participate. They even bought, sliced, and passed out orange slices to the walk-a-thon participants. All of their hard work paid off: They raised more than $15,000, which they were eager to donate to the American Red Cross.

Michele Averill, CEO of the Central Coast Chapter of the Red Cross, and Violet Nguyen, Regional Red Cross Philanthropy Officer, had the pleasure of accepting this generous gift through a check presentation at the school earlier this month.

Smiles all around for disaster relief! Photo by Virginia Becker/American Red Cross

“The joy in these kids’ hearts was simply overwhelming and inspiring,” said Michele. “Hearing their motivation of why they created the fundraiser and walk-a-thon filled my heart.”

The journey to recovery continues in Turkey and Syria for the millions affected by one of the biggest disasters to impact the region in years. Turkish Red Crescent and Syrian Arab Red Crescent workers continue to provide people with food, clean water and essential hygiene and relief supplies. As a response of this magnitude requires a team effort, National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from around the world continue to provide aid, including the American Red Cross. Earlier this year, two U.S. disaster responders were deployed to the relief efforts, specializing in communications and information management; the organization continues to assess ongoing needs.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent will continue earthquake recovery efforts in the months and years to come thanks to volunteers and the generosity of donors just like the Gateway School students. We are very grateful for their hard work to raise vital funds to support these relief efforts by engaging our local community and making a difference worldwide.  These young humanitarians are an inspiration to us all. On behalf of those we serve, thank you Gateway School for your compassion and philanthropic spirit!

Getting Blood to Babies in Need

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By Alex Keilty, American Red Cross volunteer

Across the top of the box is a typed address label for a local hospital and a simple handwritten note: “Pediatric Order.” Down the side is the American Red Cross logo and the words “Human Blood.”

Volunteer Claudia Langley loads the white box into the trunk of a Red Cross van, along with the rest of the boxes packed with blood products she is delivering to four hospitals today.

As she starts the engine and types the address of the hospital into the GPS on her cell phone she says, “The sad part is there are not enough donations.”

It’s true, she’s right. Certain kinds of blood are rarer than others. For example, this pediatric order she is carrying today – blood destined for babies – must be screened for a flu-like virus called CMV that is very common and mild in adults but can be fatal to infants. Only about 15 percent of American adults have not been exposed to CMV and therefore are able to donate to newborns. Plus, blood products have a limited shelf life so there is always a need for more donations to replenish the supply.

But today, there is blood available for a tiny patient in MarinHealth Medical Center, thanks to blood donors and volunteers like Claudia, a blood transportation specialist.

Retired from a career in art direction and graphic design, Claudia has been doing this role for the Red Cross for 2.5 years. To get trained, she completed a course online and then shadowed a fellow volunteer until she felt comfortable going alone. Now she does a four-hour shift once a week by herself.

As she drives across the Richmond Bridge over San Francisco Bay she plays music on the radio – “anything but country” – and explains how her volunteer role gives her faith in the good in others.

“It makes me feel better about people in general. You run across people who are trying to help,” she says.

Half an hour after setting off from the Red Cross Oakland Blood Center, she pulls up to the front of the hospital, stacks some of the Red Cross boxes on a cart and rolls them to the lab. Clinical laboratory scientists will match the blood types of the donated blood to patients’ blood types and then give it to the doctors and nurses who are treating the babies and other patients awaiting these blood products.

Everyone she interacts with mentions how grateful they are for her efforts, including Red Cross staff, laboratory staff and even strangers in the hospital.

“Sometimes random people walk by and say thank you for doing this,” she says.

Claudia has encouraged friends and acquaintances to begin volunteering as Red Cross blood transportation specialists because of how positive her experience has been.

“It’s not strenuous or super challenging, but it’s something you can do that’s helpful,” she says. “I am thrilled with the way they treat me and the way they are organized for the drivers and deliveries.”

From Marin she will do deliveries to hospitals in Richmond, Alameda and then back to Oakland where she will hand in the keys to the van and head home before traffic gets busy.

She describes her role as “getting the blood to where it needs to be” and today she definitely delivered blood to where it needed to be: to a tiny patient waiting in hospital for life-saving treatment.

The Red Cross relies on volunteers like Claudia to ensure patients have lifesaving blood products when they need them – and more volunteers are needed. Learn more and submit a volunteer application at redcross.org/volunteertoday.