Red Crosser takes charge of in-kind donations at Napa Valley College shelter
By Mauri Shuler
Every disaster response needs a Tamara Jones.
When disasters strike, Americans are generous and caring. They want to help, so they freely donate goods such as clothes and household items. Sometimes the donations are overwhelming to the evacuation shelter staff as they are focused on the residents being displaced. Shelter volunteers focus on providing comfort, getting residents settled, and ensuring they are made as comfortable as possible. The California wildfires were no exception, as the in-kind donations came pouring in from neighbors and surrounding communities. Read more
Blanca Harnwell came to the American Red Cross shelter at the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa on October 12 because she needed a change of clothes. Almost all of her belongings had been lost in the wildfire that leveled her Santa Rosa home a few days earlier. Blanca, a 46-year resident of Sonoma County, was able to find a pair of jeans and some capris that fit. In the disarrayed piles of clothing that had been donated by a generous community, she found something more: a volunteer job that allowed her to take her mind off her personal woes while she helped others. 
Three generations of Christil Bell’s family, five people in all, and their pit bull mix Bully had been living in their recreational vehicle in the parking lot of the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa for three days when American Red Cross volunteer Laura Hovden came knocking on their door. 
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