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Red Cross celebrates its Marin County volunteers

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SAN RAFAEL, CA (July 27, 2018) — The American Red Cross of the Bay Area honored 8 individual volunteers, a local church, and a local musician at its recent Recognition Dinner for Marin County volunteers. The annual event was held at Community Congregational Church in Tiburon.

At the dinner, Ann Eichhorn of Mill Valley received the Marin County Volunteer of the Year Award. The award acknowledges the support Eichhorn provided to the organization in 2017, including her work as Marin County Disaster Chair. Read more

Opportunity to get involved in helping at Red Cross Volunteer Intake Center

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By Kathleen Maclay, Red Cross volunteer

With hundreds seeking Red Cross help as Northern California wildfires have forced residents to evacuate, the American Red Cross is offering a one-stop Volunteer Intake Center (VIC) in the Lake County community of Middletown from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Saturday, August 4. Maybe longer. Read more

In the shadow of a volcano

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By Barbara Wood

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Red Cross volunteer Barbara Wood of Woodside works in Hilo, Hawaii, with Eric Mondero of San Diego in the Red Cross headquarters where the work of other volunteers helping the island respond to ongoing volcanic activity is coordinated. (Photo: Karl Matzke, American Red Cross volunteer)

Kilauea has long been a tourist attraction on the “big island” of Hawaii, a volcano within a national park that has been erupting with generally benign regularity since 2008.

In Hawaiian mythology Kilauea’s Halema’uma’u crater is the home, and the embodiment, of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. As part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, tourists regularly hike Pele’s flanks.

On May 3, however, everything changed. Soon after volcanic fissures began opening up under homes and farmland in the Leilani Estates neighborhood of the district of Puna, and earthquakes began coming almost too fast for the U.S. Geological Survey to register them, residents were evacuated, structures destroyed, roads closed and the Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) a geothermal energy plant that supplied a quarter of the island’s power was shut down, perhaps forever. Read more

In retirement with no signs of slowing down

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george-on-deployment_391x260When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, George Dresnek explored ways to help and found himself in an American Red Cross call center in Oakland. He now regularly deploys for the Red Cross as a facilities expert to 6 to 7 disaster responses a year, volunteer work that can take him away for up to 28 days at a time. Acknowledging the incredible sacrifices he makes on behalf of those in need, George readily credits his wife for this generosity. “I retired in 2012,” he smirks, describing his ongoing availability for service. “But she was the one who told me to ‘get a hobby.’” Read more

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