Our Disaster Cycle Services Team and the and Heart of the Valley Chapter Leadership celebrating Nancy and her dedication to the Red Cross Mission.
Nancy Reeves is retiring as a Red Cross volunteer after 17 years, and everyone in the Heart of the Valley Chapter and Northern California Coastal region will deeply miss her.
Her journey with the Red Cross started in 2007 when she joined the Disaster Action Team in Stanislaus County. She was a dedicated volunteer. Her colleagues often say that Nancy is “always there when the Red Cross calls.”
She fulfilled several roles over the years, displaying solid professionalism in each opportunity. She was a Disaster Action Team (DAT) Supervisor, Duty Officer, Disaster Responder, and Disaster Services Chair. She was also a remarkable trainer and mentor for new DAT volunteers, always happy to share her extensive knowledge and experience with them.
From training to disaster deployment, a new Red Cross volunteer experiences the mission in action.
By Lori Souza, Red Cross communications volunteer
In the most extraordinary circumstances, we find the most ordinary people willing to help others. Farshad Fallah was one such volunteer who found himself in a position to help others as a volunteer for the Red Cross. As a Finance guy by day, he was not moved by the work he was doing, and in August 2023, he signed up as a volunteer for the Red Cross. He did not expect to go from applicant to volunteer so quickly, but he was ready for whatever was next. By the end of the month, Farshad’s life would change drastically, and he would embark on an adventure he never expected.
Red Cross Free Smoke Alarms Alert Marin County Family During House Fire
“I said, ‘A fire! A fire! Let’s get out. Everybody get out!’”
The Monthier family home the night of Sept. 3, 2023.
Marie Monthier will never forget what happened in the early morning hours of September 3, 2023. She and her extended family of two older adults, two adult children and two small grandchildren were asleep in their mobile home in Marin County, California. Marie got up to use the restroom and heard smoke alarms blaring. That’s when she saw a fire behind the kitchen stove and alerted her family to evacuate.
Marie’s son, David Mardy, had just moved into his own apartment in Marin County. When his mother called him after everyone got out of the house safely, David rushed over and found the home in ruins and his family in shock.
“The whole family was on the street, standing, looking at the house burning down. My mom said, ‘Look at my house!’ Tears started coming out of my eyes,” David said.
As an American Red Cross volunteer since 2010, Roxanne Anderson has deployed to more than 35 disasters across the continental United States and several island deployments including the islands of Guam in June 2023 and the American Virgin Islands in 2017. She is one of those special volunteers who has, “been there, done that.”
Roxanne has held a wide variety of jobs in her 35+ deployments, including in Georgia following a tornado in May 2011. Photo courtesy Roxanne Anderson
Roxanne, who lives in San Jose, joined the Red Cross after spending 30 years as a California Highway Patrol officer. She’s done a wide array of Red Cross roles, including disaster response feeding, sheltering, managing logistics, driving an emergency response vehicle (ERV), supply and transportation.
States she has been sent to, in addition to her home state of California, include Illinois, Georgia, Missouri, Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington, North Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, US Virgin Island, Oklahoma, Florida and Guam. She has responded to floods, hurricanes, wildfires, a gas pipeline explosion and multi-structure fires, tornadoes and mass shootings.
By Anika Kurkut, Red Cross Communications Team Intern
Photo courtesy of Debbie Yee
Debbie Yee, a dedicated Red Crosser for 23 years, turned her passion for helping others into a fulfilling career as a Senior Disaster Program Manager where she leads disaster response efforts for the Northern California Coastal Region.
Debbie first started volunteering with the Red Cross in the summer before she began eighth grade, as a requirement for volunteer service. Little did she know, this initial step would lead to a lifelong career dedicated to helping others. Her early days as a Red Cross volunteer in the Bay Area were marked by her involvement at the Leadership Development Camp (LDC), where she was able to find inspiration among fellow passionate youth volunteers. Debbie recalls, “I was organizing events at school, helping with blood drives, and fundraising.”
“I truly feel honored to share my story to maybe help just one person!”
Kathie Reinholds of Brentwood is a big believer in “paying it forward.” More than 50 years ago, as a teenager in Hayward, she won an award for her volunteer work with the American Red Cross. Decades later, the Red Cross was able to pay Kathie back for her selfless work – not once, but twice!
Kathie’s home in Paradise, Calif., before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018.
On November 8, 2018, Kathie was sound asleep in her home in Paradise, California. She lived alone, having lost her husband Gary four years earlier. What happened to her that morning is what she calls “a story and a half.”
“Something woke me up and I thought it was the middle of the night,” says Kathie. “I looked at my phone and it was 8 a.m. Normally I would roll over, but something pushed me up. I like to think it was my husband, my guardian angel.”
Kathie ran outside and found a strange scene.
The eerie glow from the Camp Fire on the morning of November 8, 2018.
“I was up on a hill and overlooked everything. It was the weirdest red sky. I thought it was a cool sunrise.”
What she saw was the smoke and flames from the Camp Fire, which raced through Paradise that morning, killing 85 people and destroying much of the town.
“We had no system in place to learn that there was a fire. All the emergency towers burned down; it just spread so fast.”
Kathie credits a neighbor for saving her life.
“She called me and said, ‘Get out now, kiddo!’”
Kathie managed to throw a few things into her car but could not find her cat and had to leave her behind. She drove through the burning town, sitting in gridlock, then on to Chico, Sacramento, and finally Lodi, where she met up with her grown children.
The burnt remains of Kathie’s Paradise home.
Kathie was able to return to Paradise the following month but found her home had burned to the ground and her cat had disappeared.
“It was horrible,” she says, choking up. “That same month I almost died. I had a heart attack. I think I’m on maybe my fourth life,” Kathie says, laughing through her tears. “I don’t know how many ‘Get Out of Jail’ cards I get but I’ve used quite a few!”
Kathie says she received financial help from FEMA and from the Red Cross. “They also had a table for travel-sized personal needs that became a staple in part of my many trips to Paradise and recreating my life.”
Kathie finally was able to create that new life for herself at a mobile home park in Brentwood in Contra Costa County. “I couch surfed for several months and moved five times before I landed the house in Brentwood. This experience either makes you humble and grateful or angry. I choose humble!”
Red Cross volunteers installing free smoke alarms in Kathie’s Brentwood community.
Five years after that devastating wildfire, Kathie once again connected with the American Red Cross. Volunteers with the Red Cross Sound the Alarm program came to her mobile home park this April to install free smoke alarms for residents.
Kathie says, “I was so thrilled. My ceilings are really high. I’m thinking, ‘how I am I going to do this?’”
The volunteer crews put in several new smoke alarms in her home. When they learned she was hard of hearing, they arranged for another crew to return and install a “bed shaker” alarm. This specialized device includes a vibrating pad that can be placed under a pillow or mattress. The bed shaker connects to other alarms in a home and features a strobe light that can rouse people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Now, Kathie tells us she feels much safer in her new home. “Oh yes, absolutely! I know at any time, anything can happen, when you least expect it, I know it. I will be forever grateful to the Red Cross.”
Kathie still believes in the Red Cross values she learned in high school and the lessons from the Camp Fire. “I have a ‘pay it forward closet.’ That closet contains a rotating supply of pots, pans, linens and other items for people in need. “Everyone should have one!”
To learn more about preparing for a home or wildfire, visit redcross.org/prepare.
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