Red Crossers surveyed the widespread flooding that left Pajaro underwater, including Joanne’s home (pictured in the distance between the volunteers).
Written by: Jillian Robertson | Senior Manager, Long-Term Recovery Communications, American Red Cross
“People were caught off guard. It was 1 a.m. The levees were breaking, and we were told, ‘You’ve got to go!’ It was very traumatic.”
Joanne Jackson lived with her husband and her daughter in their home in Pajaro, California, before catastrophic floods forced them from their home two years ago, in December 2022.
For Joanne and her husband, they were lucky. The day before, the sheriff had warned them to evacuate. They left in their travel trailer where they’re still living today, as they work on repairs to their home that was rendered uninhabitable by the floods.
In my weekly one-on-one meetings with my supervisor, the question of professional development often arises. Usually, I’d offer a standard answer, something about improving my Excel skills or taking a project management course. Honestly, I hadn’t given it much serious thought. That is, until I said “yes” to a deployment opportunity to help with the disaster response operation for the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. It was then I realized the Red Cross offers growth opportunities far beyond what I could imagine – opportunities for profound personal and professional development.
“We are so focused on responding and getting a job done, but that isn’t how you touch peoples’ lives. You do that by listening to them, talking to them, letting them tell their story and finding out what they need. Then you help them,” is a sentiment that has guided Briana Taylor, first by a career in psychology, and later by two decades of service with the American Red Cross.
Briana’s introduction to disaster response was happenstance. In her professional role in mental health, Briana had spent many years working to alleviate human suffering on an individual level, tending to the needs of her patients in their darkest hour. In 2004, Briana was vacationing in Phuket, Thailand with her family, briefly taking off her psychologist hat, when a tsunami took to the island’s shores. Six weeks later, her drive to alleviate suffering took flight on the community-level, as she returned to Thailand to support islanders in their recovery.
Recognizing Susan Winters, Heart of the Valley Chapter’s Clara Barton Award Winner
By Selena Nisha
Photo courtesy of Susan Winters
After retiring from a career as a speech therapist and school secretary, Susan Winters from Modesto, California found herself searching for new ways to stay engaged in her community. Susan has always believed in the importance of giving back. Her parents were active in community service and instilled in her the values of volunteerism and compassion towards others. This passion for service led her to the American Red Cross in 2010, and her contribution to the organization was recently recognized with the Clara Barton Award for Meritorious Leadership. Named after the founder of the Red Cross, the award recognizes a volunteer for their years of service in various leadership positions.
“I was born to help people. That’s what brings me the most joy.” Caro (Carolina) Dratva, a Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region’s Disaster Cycle Services Team member and Communications volunteer, heard the call to help others early. When she was 12 and still living in Colombia, a volcanic eruption buried a close friend’s hometown, Armero. “I could only watch TV, listen to the radio, and follow up with my friend,” whose parents had died in the disaster with 23,000 others. Responders with the Red Cross emblem arrived to rescue victims and remove debris during an operation that she would remember later when, at age 15, she noticed the same emblem among response teams in San Francisco in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which she witnessed. At that time, she revealed, “I didn’t realize that the Red Cross was mainly run by volunteers.” It was only after she asked how much responders were paid that she understood that most rescuers offered their unpaid time and effort to save others, a fact that must have deeply moved this scuba diver, surfer, conservationist, and explorer to dive deep and dedicate more than two decades to volunteering.
After all, when Caro set off for the Bahamas several years ago on a dolphin trip with her closest friend, she couldn’t have predicted that her life would be deeply impacted again. “During the night,” she recently shared, “I went to swim with dolphins 85 miles out on a boat. We were anchored, and I was the only one swimming. Everyone else was on the boat. So, I went off with the dolphins. There was a full moon, and I lost my sense of direction. But because of the moonlight reflecting on the water, I couldn’t find the boat. I couldn’t see it. For the first time, I felt panic, like, ‘I’m going to die here.’ But the dolphins were still hanging with me. So, I literally spoke to them: ‘Could you please bring me back to the boat.’ And then, one pushed me on one side, the other pushed me on the other, and they brought me right back to the boat.’” This profound moment of trust and connection with the dolphins helped her realize the power of relying on others during moments of crisis. Just as the dolphins guided her to safety, Caro felt compelled to help guide others through challenging times, which ultimately led her to dedicate her time to lifesaving organizations such as the American Red Cross.
Photos courtesy of Caro Dratva
“There has to be a way that I can volunteer.” The real work began with 9/11, when the Twin Towers came down in Manhattan’s Battery. She needed to help, so she joined the Red Cross. “I thought, if I have to deploy to New York, I’ll do it. But then, I realized I needed training.” Getting that training during such a fraught time for the country and those who’d lost loved ones required sensitivity and an ability to ask the right questions.
“My first training was in San Francisco,” she recalled, “connecting the missing people on lists with their families.” Mainly, she conducted interviews meant for search and rescue teams, gathering descriptions of missing people, noting the floors they worked on and what they were wearing the last time they were seen. Even now, twenty-two years later, Caro remembers one moving experience when she used her native language skills to search for a distraught woman’s husband who’d worked in the Towers. “She spoke Spanish, and the good news was that the woman’s husband was alive and able to reconnect with her.”
Later, after a one-year hiatus in Europe, she continued to dedicate herself to helping others, getting involved in Red Cross blood drives, donation collection campaigns, and numerous disaster relief operations, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Caro and Red Cross Volunteers supporting communities affected by wildfires in North Bay, 2017
Since then, Caro has watched the Red Cross grow even more effective, learning from hard knocks like Katrina. Better organizational tools have improved efficiency before, during, and after disasters, allowing volunteers like her to give time even when time is sometimes hard to spare. Holding down two jobs—one focused on ocean conservation and the other on architectural design—Caro still finds time to volunteer in numerous ways. “Because of good organization and how the Red Cross has grown, I can be on standby for the Disaster Action Team (DAT). I’m also trained for sheltering, and I’m part of the Public Affairs and Communications team.”
All this volunteering has added up over the years. From one training session to another, Caro has developed expertise through online and real-world experience. With every exposure she’s had to disasters, shelters, and blood drives, she has noticed, listened to, and recognized others as they face some of the most challenging moments of their lives. This may be one reason why she still swims for life, giving a great gift to others along the way: how to save others while saving oneself.
James and his wife Sue, at Livermore 1st St. Ale House watching Raiders on the big screen. Photo courtesy of James Ferguson
As thirteen-year-old James Ferguson sat in his hospital room with a life-threatening injury, he struggled to accept that his burgeoning football career was over. His dream of playing for the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders would never come true. He questioned what would come next and how he could fill football’s void. James soon knew that playing the guitar could fill part of that void, but it took him nearly 15 more years to answer more of that question.
When 27-year-old James Ferguson donated blood for the first time at a work-sponsored blood drive in 1983, he thought back to that moment in the hospital. “Giving blood made me realize those thoughts were very juvenile,” said James. It was at that blood drive that James realized donating blood could fill more of football’s void.
Today, James regularly donates blood and plasma through the American Red Cross. Since his first blood drive in 1983, James has donated nearly 30 gallons of blood. He donates through the Red Cross “whenever he can, whenever they call,” barring work, travel or other personal obligations. He describes the Red Cross as the “greatest community of people.”
For James, donating blood is a deeper act of service to other humans and a simple way of giving back to others in need. As James explains, “the basis of all this is my faith. There are things that we can do and things that we do and there are opportunities that we have to accept or we run away from. I love to do something for somebody that brightens their day. Their pleasure, their happiness makes me happy.”
James’ desire to help other people is not only unique to him. He is proud of the dedication of his whole family – which he also credits with filling football’s void – to helping others. His sister helps people every day as a nurse at a local hospital in Fremont. Other family members have even interacted with the Red Cross in the past, including his daughter, who is a medic in the Army National Guard, who helped with the emergency response to the 2018 Paradise Fire.
“Me with my grandkids and daughter. Left to Right: Owen, Madison, Daughter Sara, and me.” Photo courtesy of James Ferguson“Mom and Me… a weekend of playing Yahtzee!” Photo courtesy of James Ferguson“This is my band, my band. The Bylly James Band. I’m on left playing guitar.” Photo courtesy of James Ferguson
Music is also incredibly important to James and his family. He cites it as another major factor that helped him get through the injury. As James said, “Football ends, music never does.” He plays guitar in a classic rock/blues band in the Fremont area. One of his favorite parts of playing music is seeing the impact his music has on people’s faces.
James has found a way through the Red Cross Blood Donor app to replicate that same reaction when he gives blood. Although he cannot directly see the impact on someone’s face, James calls the app’s ability to show him where his blood was used, “powerful.” This is especially true when children receive his blood. “The app is important. It is a huge revelation. Deeper than anything. It hits home.” James says of the app’s impact.
James plans to give blood for as long as he can since it is both fulfilling and easy to do. “I am a five-minute blood donor,” he says. He also has words of encouragement for others who may be thinking about donating for the first time. “It takes half an hour to save somebody’s life. If you do these things, you will find joy that you never imagined,” he tells them.
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