Tag Archives: Partners

Making Life on the Water Safer

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Red Cross Volunteers bring home fire safety to the floating homes of Sausalito

Catherine Lee, Ron Lau, Vincent Valenzuela, Lesley Carmichael and Claire Cannariato (L to R) prepare to install smoke alarms in floating homes

“You’re on the water.  You’ve got wildlife out your window.  You’ve got the sun playing off the water.”

That’s how Flo Hoylman describes living aboard a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., just north of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. But Flo, who serves on the board of the Sausalito Floating Homes Association, knows she and her neighbors on the water are just as susceptible to fires as any other Californians. 

“We still burn. And if there was a fire, like there was in Santa Rosa, the embers would come down on us, too.”

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More Than a Store: What Community Really Means After Disaster

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Richard and Add Beale were fossil-hunting in the area near Chinese Camp, off the road to Yosemite, about a decade ago when they noticed a ‘for sale’ sign. A few years later they sold their home and packed up their two children and moved to the town where they’ve become community icons.

The American Red Cross could not help communities recover from disasters without the help of community partners. In Chinese Camp, a historic small town outside Sonora that was devastated when a lightning-sparked fire swept through on September 2, 2025, one standout partnership included Richard and Add Beale, owners of the Chinese Camp Store.

Ten years ago, when the Beales first noticed the “for sale” sign on the run-down store and tavern on the road from Sonora to Yosemite, they could not have imagined they would be where they are today: the well-established owners of the store and serving as the Chinese Camp’s recovery hub from wildfires that destroyed 50 of the homes in a community that has only 150 residents.

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Investing in Preparedness: Inside the CAP Bus Tour 

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When torrential rain opened over California in the winter of 2023, few could have imagined the devastation that would follow. Fueled by rare atmospheric rivers, communities were flooded with destruction like they had never seen before. Among them was Pajaro, a small Monterey County town, where homes and livelihoods were destroyed.  

While this disaster did leave behind broken levees, it also ignited a new vision for preparedness, particularly in vulnerable communities where disasters repeatedly hit the hardest.  

That realization quickly became the impetus to launch the 18th Red Cross Community Adaptation Program (CAP) across the country out of Monterey County. This is an innovative Red Cross initiative designed to strengthen local partner networks in disaster-prone areas, ensuring families have the tools and support they need before the next emergency strikes. 

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Hero Among Us: Vacaville Volunteer Firefighter Receives Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action 

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Vincent Hayes, a 20-year-old Vacaville volunteer firefighter, with his CEPA

20-year-old Vincent Hayes, a Vacaville volunteer firefighter, was presented with the Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action (CEPA) by the American Red Cross on November 18 for his heroic actions of saving a man’s life while at “The Happiest Place on Earth” in early August of this year. 

As Vincent and his girlfriend boarded the Disneyland Railroad 30 minutes before midnight, there was a commotion that caught his attention. Another couple adjacent to the ride was laying a man down on the floor after asking if “he was ok”. 

Vincent instantly took action, hopped off the slow-moving train and ran towards the couple and the man who wasn’t ok. Once on the ground, he assessed the situation and checked for the man’s pulse. He was apneic, not breathing while unconscious, and pulseless. 

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Community Adaptation Program Celebrates One Year in Monterey County

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The Community Adaptation Program team together at the 2025 American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region Gala. Pictured are Lucy Rojas (left), Gabriela Perez Albarracin (middle) and Maria Magaña (right).

By Mark Phillips, Board Member Central Coast Chapter

The American Red Cross Community Adaptation Program (CAP) is an initiative to enhance the ability of local and hyper-local organizations to provide services during disasters. The Red Cross leverages its expertise, partnerships and network to level up the impact of the grassroots organizations that know their communities best. By building the capability, capacity and continuity of these groups during blue sky periods, they are better able to provide vital services during trying times.

CAP came to Monterey County in July of 2024, when Gabriela Perez Albarracin joined the area from the Lake County, California. Under her leadership, the first year of CAP activity in Monterey County has had a number of successes and laid the groundwork for an impactful year two.

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Sound The Alarm:  502 Homes Made Safer Thanks to Red Cross Volunteers, Local Fire Departments and Community Partners

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1,357 smoke alarms installed throughout the Northern California Coastal Region in this spring

The American Red Cross responds to home fires more than any other disaster nationwide, so home fire prevention is something we take seriously. For that reason, Red Cross members, along with local fire departments and community partners, to install 1,357 free smoke alarms in 502 homes, making 1,472 residents safer from homes fires during our 2025 Sound the Alarm campaign. From April 26 – May 23, communities in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Merced, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties were made safer thanks to free smoke alarms and home fire prevention education.

Sound the Alarm events are a critical part of the national Red Cross Home Fire Campaign which aims to reduce the number of deaths from home fires. The Home Fire Campaign has helped save 2,320 lives since its launch in October 2014 due to working smoke alarms in homes. Nationwide, volunteers and local fire departments visit neighborhoods to install free smoke alarms and share home fire prevention information with residents, including home fire escape plans. Here in the Northern California Coastal Region, volunteers and partners have installed more than 55,300 free smoke alarms and made more than 20,000 households safer since 2014, saving 32 lives reported in the Greater Bay Area.

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