Tag Archives: Bay Area

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

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

Successful weekends for ‘Sound the Alarm’ spring push

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sound-the-alarm_350x211This spring, Red Cross teams across the country are making a special effort to reach even more people in even more homes as part of our lifesaving Home Fire Campaign. During a period that spans three weekends between April 28 and May 13, the Red Cross has been making plans to Sound the Alarm, Save a Life with more than 25,000 volunteers to install an additional 100,000 smoke alarms and educate residents about home fire safety in communities throughout the United States.

Here are the totals for the campaign in the Northern California Coastal Region: 752 volunteers made 783 homes safer by installing 2,208 smoke alarms and educating 2,530 residents.

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My three weeks in Puerto Rico: Linda Haddad

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In 2017, Puerto Rico was hit with two strong hurricanes that devastated the island. One hundred percent of the population was without power, and many were without water or a safe consistent food source. The American Red Cross put out a call for disaster worker volunteers who have experience working in third world environments; they specifically sought returned Peace Corps volunteers, of which I am one. Read more

Why I help: Bay Area volunteer Daren Olson

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By Sharon J. Alfred

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Red Cross HFC Volunteer Daren Olson poses with “Sparky,” who is the fire prevention mascot for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

Daren Olson is a firefighter with 30 years’ experience, so when he retired it was natural for him to become a volunteer with the American Red Cross’ Home Fire Campaign (HFC). During his many years as a firefighter, he saw smoke alarms in all sorts of conditions. Olson recalled, “Once, I saw a melted smoke alarm sitting on the counter!” He never wants to see that again.

Preventing home fire is a subject near and dear to his heart. That’s one of the main reasons he volunteers on the HFC campaign with the Red Cross. He is the Contra Costa County HFP administrator/coordinator. Read more

Helping clients is all the motivation this volunteer needs

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Photo of Colleen Sasso, assisting a clientFor retired nurse Colleen Sasso, becoming a volunteer for the American Red Cross in 2009 was a perfect opportunity to do something other than nursing. It was a good plan, or so it seemed at the time.

“I had had a long and wonderful career at the San Francisco VA Medical Center,” Colleen says. “I worked in intensive care and was in charge of nursing in the Radiology Department. And I loved working with veterans.” Read more

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