A Drive to Do Good: How a tragedy led to compassion in the community
By Crystal Reiss
When Catalina Ramirez-Vaughn was five years old and living in Mexico, something unforgettable happened to her younger sister, who was just a toddler at the time. Catalina was so affected by witnessing the incident and its aftermath that it has become her main motivation for organizing blood donation campaigns that support the American Red Cross.
It was 1964, and her mother had just given birth to a younger brother. Grandma was looking after the children while drawing a bath of stove-boiled water because, as Catalina said, “We didn’t have running water.”
“My sister,” Catalina recalled, “didn’t listen to Grandma’s warnings to stay out of the hot water.” It happened so quickly that no one had time to stop the toddler, who stumbled into the scalding bath water.
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