Your Red Cross Update

The woman, and many of her neighbors, had been eating only canned food and storing very limited perishables in coolers since a hurricane had hit their homes weeks before, American Red Cross volunteer Melody Heilmann says. She chokes up as she recalls the woman screaming at the top of her lungs with joy when she was told she qualified for financial assistance from the Red Cross, “Oh my god, I can get a refrigerator now!” The woman was one of many people that Melody helped while volunteering for the Red Cross three years ago during Hurricane Ian.

This assignment was one of eight times Melody has responded to a disaster with the Red Cross, including after the wildfires in Chico, Calif. and Lahaina, Hawaii. Arriving just two days after the catastrophic fires in Hawaii, Melody vividly recalls people who arrived at the shelter still covered in soot and missing their shoes because they lost them when they fled from the deadly blaze. Although it can be very sad to meet people at what might be the worst time of their lives, seeing how the Red Cross helps them is very rewarding.