Tag Archives: Regional

Superwoman to the Rescue: Patti Childress’ Story 

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Trigger Warning: Graphic Surgery Descriptions 

If it’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, then Patti Childress must be Superwoman. The dynamic, assertive strawberry-blonde has had 40 surgeries over the past 29 years; yet, she still maintains an incredibly demanding schedule as a Blood Services account manager with the American Red Cross, where she’s responsible for getting blood drives booked and done. 

Woman standing next to blood drive sign at a Red Cross Blood Donation Center in San Jose.
Patti Childress is proud to share her health history with students and adults at the American Red Cross. She says that every day, volunteer blood and platelet donors are needed across the country to help save lives.

“Yes,” she said, “it would be a lot for anyone to do,” especially given the huge territory she is responsible for across the Northern California Coastal Region. But she is committed to encouraging, scheduling, planning, organizing, overseeing and finalizing blood drives as a way to thank all the people who were willing to donate the blood and platelets she needed to save her life. 

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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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Melody Yamaguchi’s lifelong service to the Red Cross mission 

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For many people, donating blood to the American Red Cross is not just a single act but a lifelong commitment to the humanitarian mission. Melody Yamaguchi is one of the super donors that has been donating blood since she was 18 years old, after getting inspired by her older sister. Through the changes and challenges in Melody’s life, she always found her way back to serving the mission of the Red Cross.  

Melody’s smile shines through a lifetime of change and challenges.

“During my cancer imaging, surgeries and radiation, my children and I were scared. All my energy went into supporting my children and finding my courage within.”

“I’m not an exceptional person, but through Red Cross blood donation, I’ve had the ability to do something extraordinary.”

–Melody Yamaguchi

Melody embraces the moment in her youth with a timeless look.
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Razi Aftab: Leading with Purpose and Passion at the American Red Cross 

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Razi Aftab, a first-year student at University of California Los Angeles studying Electrical Engineering and Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, is not your average college student. Since December 2021, he has dedicated countless hours to the American Red Cross, rising as a trailblazer in youth volunteerism. His extraordinary commitment was nationally recognized when he received the Navin Narayan Award for Excellence in Youth Leadership at the Red Cross National Awards celebration in Washington, D.C. in April of this year. 

The award, named after the late Navin Narayan—a visionary youth volunteer and advocate—honors one young person annually between the ages of 15 to 24 who demonstrates exceptional leadership, service and dedication to the Red Cross mission. Representing the Northern California Coastal Region, Razi exemplifies these values through his extensive and impactful involvement with the organization at both regional and national levels. 

Razi’s Red Cross journey began during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Encouraged by his mother and inspired by a desire to give back, he joined the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Youth Action Campaign. The campaign, which educates youth about the rules of armed conflict, sparked a lasting interest in humanitarian service and opened the door to many more roles within the Red Cross. 

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Beyond the Desk: My Red Cross Transformation

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by Kelsey Marasigan

Photo courtesy of Kelsey Marasigan

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.

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A Circle of Giving: “Please Convey My Gratitude”

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Photo courtesy of Lisa Lemus

A Tender but Strong Love Becomes the Foundation of Gratitude and Giving

When Phillip Wong, a math professor at Contra Costa College, met Lisa Lemus—a K-12 teacher—at a church dance on Valentine’s Day in 1996, everything changed. As divorcees, they both understood what it meant to spend a life together, yet they also understood what it meant to live alone (coincidentally, they’d both been single for 17 years). Most of all, family was everything to them. Phillip had three grown children, and Lisa had two. But living on their own had left them open to dating, and their meeting was unforgettable.

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