Category Archives: Homepage Posts — Other

Watsonville Fire Captain knows — firsthand — the value of blood donations

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Danny Lucas, who miraculously survived a near-fatal hunting accident, is promoting a Red Cross Central Coast Chapter blood drive on February 21

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Danny Lucas, shown in his Watsonville backyard with his dog Stella, desperately needed two dozen units of blood to survive his brush with death. Taking time away from his own recovery, Danny is now helping to promote an American Red Cross blood drive on Friday, February 21, at the Pajaro Valley Health Trust Hall in Watsonville. (Photo: Jim Burns)
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As a 35-year veteran of the Watsonville Fire Department, Captain Danny Lucas has seen more than his share of fire- or accident-related tragedies. “I’ve had to give the worst kind of news to next of kin,” he says.

Fighting to hold back tears, he quietly adds: “I didn’t want our own sons to have to make that kind of a call to my wife.”

But, because of a hunting accident in the wilds of Montana this past November, an emergency call to Danny’s wife had to be made. Cindi Lucas was told her husband was clinging to life and that she needed to immediately travel to his bedside. Read more

JJ Lara, American Red Cross San Francisco 2019 Volunteer of the Year

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by Marcia Antipa

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JJ, center front, surrounded by fellow Red Crossers at the 2019 Bay Area Holiday Party. Photo by Eric Carmichael | American Red Cross
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“Bringing people together for a great cause and a great organization.”  That’s how JJ Lara describes his role as a volunteer for the American Red Cross, and it is key to his winning the San Francisco Volunteer of the Year award.

From Fleet Week to the Leadership Council, and a few roles that might surprise you, JJ has spent seven years giving to the organization.

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11-year-old who alerted her family to a fire is honored as Red Cross hero

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Berlin Gomez-Muniz, 11, received a Red Cross “Hero” medal for alerting her family to a Dec. 19 fire in San Jose. Her mother, Frankie, and Silicon Valley Red Cross chapter board chair Terry Unter look on. Photo: Mark Butler/American Red Cross

Berlin Gomez-Muniz stood quietly as a 3-inch diameter “Hero” medal was draped around her neck at the Jan. 16 Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross board meeting, but when it was the most important, the 11-year-old says, she yelled so loud her throat hurt after she alerted her extended family to a fire just before Christmas. Read more

Red Cross Certificate of Merit presented to Cupertino volunteer for using training skills to save a life

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On September 9, 2019, Stuart Chessen, trained in American Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED, helped to save the life of a gentleman who had experienced a seizure on the sidewalk outside the American Red Cross office in San Francisco, CA. Stuart, a Cupertino resident, was teaching a class of students lifesaving skills when suddenly a bystander ran into the building alerting a gentleman was in distress. Stuart exited the classroom and found a gentleman on the sidewalk.  Stuart quickly assessed the situation and placed a jacket under the gentleman’s head as he was striking the sidewalk. Stuart along with bystanders were able to keep the gentleman calm. Emergency Medical Services arrived shortly after to continue care. Without a doubt, the skills learned in the American Red Cross Training Services course helped to save the life of this gentleman. Read more

Red Cross-installed smoke alarm alerts mobile home residents to fire

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These volunteers were among those installing smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in the Sunshadow mobile home park on Feb. 19, 2019, six months before two residents’ lives were saved when the smoke alarms alerted them to a fire. Photo Credit: American Red Cross/Oleksii Nazaruk.
Click here for more photos from the event.

San Jose resident Nguyen Robson had been an American Red Cross volunteer for less than a year when he was called to help two mobile home residents displaced by a fire and received a vivid lesson about his volunteer work’s impact.

When Robson arrived at the Sunshadow mobile home park in San Jose, the two residents — waiting safely outside their home — greeted him with grateful recognition in their native Vietnamese. They remembered Robson as one of the volunteers who had installed smoke alarms and helped them prepare an evacuation plan for their mobile home only six months earlier. The alarm woke them from a mid-afternoon nap and allowed their escape.

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