Your Red Cross Update

By: Aarushi Saha, Red Cross Communications Volunteer

“The fire was large enough that you could smell it a mile out. Like driving into it, you could smell it come into the vent of your car. By the time we got there, the house was fully engulfed, and in fact the second storey had collapsed onto the first story. It was just chaotic,” recalls Micah Stroud of a house fire he responded to in Cupertino, Calif. a few months ago.

Micah, an American Red Cross volunteer, responds to many house fires in his role but this experience stayed with him the most.

The first resident he met on the scene had previously volunteered with the Red Cross, so she understood that Micah’s team was there to organize emergency housing and financial aid for people displaced by the fire. Her husband had been burned by the fire, and there was more bad news to come.

Micah learned that several of the family’s cats were believed to have been trapped and died under the home.

“It was really kind of a hand in glove moment between us and the fire department to make sure we had everything as calm, collected and contained as we could, so that when that moment came for that notification, we could make it a safe space,” he explains.

Although moments like that can be difficult, Micah was glad he was there to support that family.

When he learned that he had been selected for the 2026 Volunteer of the Year Award for the Silicon Valley Chapter, his reaction wasn’t what most people would expect.

“It was honestly irritation,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special. I’m just doing what I came here to do.”

Micah instead thinks about the other volunteers who work behind the scenes every day.

“I’ve seen people that are there at the chapter all the time in the office doing stuff,” he said. “I kept thinking, ‘What about them?’”

When Micah first started volunteering with the American Red Cross around four years ago, he was looking for a way to reconnect with his community after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think coming out of Covid, I felt that I was disconnected from folks as a lot of us were at that time,” he said. “I wanted to figure out how I could do something that was kind of giving back and paying it forward to the community.”

What started as a stint volunteering at a Red Cross event called Sound the Alarm, grew into something much bigger. Now, Micah serves on the Disaster Action Team (DAT), where he responds to local disasters at all hours, predominantly house fires, and also volunteers as an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) driver.

Noted in the nomination form for his award was that Micah was nominated because he responded to more DAT shifts than anyone else that year. Despite this recognition, Micah’s motivation was never to gather the most shifts, but instead to be present for people experiencing a disaster.

“These are folks that are having, if not the worst day, the second worst day of their lives,” Micah said. “Knowing that we can do a little something at that moment in time to help them out when literally no one else can, is what motivates me on taking on more.”

After all this experience, Micah says that every fire is different.

“I’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of fires and what I’ve seen over and over again is that no two are the same. There is always something new, something different, and I’m always learning something new and trying to figure out how I can help folks at that moment,” Micah explains.

For Micah, the most rewarding part of his job is being able to provide immediate support to families when they need it most.

“It’s very hands-on and active,” he said. “I feel like I am doing something meaningful and helping people during one of the hardest moments of their lives.”

In addition to his work on the Disaster Action Team, he also serves as a garage lead. His role is to make sure the emergency response vehicle is always available, ready to deploy, for any response, local or national.

“We have got a resource that needs to be available all the time for responses, available for disasters, making sure that we kind of keep it up to date, keep it up to speed, and make sure it is ready all the time,” he explains.

Being ready is important because a disaster can quickly grow in scale. For example, in the last year there were two incidents that started as regular DAT calls but grew to require setting up a shelter.

“I knew the DAT side of the Red Cross really well, but getting to experience the larger shelter response gave me a whole new perspective.”

For Micah, one of the most surprising parts of volunteering has been discovering that there are so many ways to make a difference through the Red Cross.

“Before I joined the Red Cross, I was a donor,” he said. “Now that I’m on the other side, I understand why so much of this organization can help clients. It’s because of the kindness and generosity of volunteers. There is enough variety in all of the different operations and positions. If you want it, there has got to be something out there for you. I mean, I’m amazed on a regular basis of the things that I didn’t know that the Red Cross did.”

For Micah, volunteering isn’t just about awards or recognition. It’s about helping people when they are facing some of the hardest moments of their lives and giving back to the community whenever he can.

Find out about volunteering on a Disaster Action Team near you today.