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Tag Archives: Volunteers

One Trauma, Several Big Hearts, and an Unforgettable Outcome

Posted on August 26, 2025 by crystalreiss

Midday Sunday, on Presidents’ Day weekend, 2025, anyone driving along I-880 near Oakland, Calif.’s Laney College would have seen a large black plume of smoke dangerously close to the freeway, billowing towards Lake Merritt. An RV fire had erupted on that dry but overcast day, its flames marking the beginning of an unusual reunification story involving at least two organizations, some very dedicated people, and a cat.

Marsha sleeping soundly under the care of her “good samaritan”

Found After Flames

A day or two after the smoke cleared, “a good samaritan,” as Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region volunteer Jessica Shobar recently said, “found a lost kitty in San Leandro…hiding under a car, badly burned, and covered in soot.” Though the kitty’s wounds were substantial—with blackened and singed paws, face, and body—she was alive. And though the distance from the fire was exceptional and the kitty didn’t have a microchip, her luck would later be viewed as extraordinary because the good samaritan and San Leandro’s Animal Control coaxed her into a carrier and took her to a local clinic. This was especially fortunate because if she’d been found in Oakland, she might have been sent to a shelter and never would have landed where the key ingredients for reunification were available.

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On Being a Shelter Volunteer: My First Deployment Experience

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Jill Feldon LaNouette

Volunteer Disaster Supervisor Jerome Thierry (center) has been involved with the American Red Cross since he was a child in Los Angeles in 1977. Given his experience, he supports newer volunteers like Jill Feldon (left) and Keturah Fenicle (right) as shelter team leader.

It’s true: you will meet some amazing people, you will have “a-ha” moments that will stick with you for the rest of your life, your adrenaline will soar, you will learn a ton and you’ll face long stretches of tedium punctuated by a flurry of activity.

All these moments are yours to experience if you respond to a disaster as an American Red Cross volunteer.

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Building un-fur-gettable memories: A Red Cross volunteer helps veterans and dogs connect in the Central Coast Chapter

Posted on June 23, 2025 by Anton Ghosh

Each time a team of dogs and their handlers descends on the Major General William H. Gourley VA-DoD Outpatient Clinic in Marina, California, American Red Cross volunteer Penny Mount cannot help but feel a sense of satisfaction. She knows these dogs have a meaningful impact on patients, less than a year after their first visit as part of the first Red Cross’s Animal Visitation Program (AVP) in California’s Central Coast.

Penny started the AVP program in November 2024 at the request of her supervisor, Nikki Rowe. She had never built a similar program and “I knew nothing about therapy dogs,” says Penny. So, she reached out to local resources, including the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

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

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Aileen Blomdal

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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Trust and Care: The Story of a Red Cross Volunteer Flight Surgeon

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Alex Keilty

“When patients come in, they automatically trust you when they see the Red Cross,” says Justin Nast, M.D., about the logo that is on his name tag. His American Red Cross badge identifies Dr. Nast as a volunteer flight surgeon entrusted with the care of U.S. Air Force aviators.

How did Dr. Nast become a Red Cross volunteer flight surgeon? Interestingly, he didn’t start his medical career planning to be a flight surgeon. In fact, he was an obstetrics and gynecology resident when he was recruited by the Air Force. (An ob/gyn is the medical specialty that encompasses pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, and the health of the female reproductive system.) After joining the armed forces, he spent eight years delivering babies and caring for the health of enlisted service women.

When the hospital he was stationed at in Germany was closing, he launched into a new career: aerospace medicine. Dr. Nast says it’s a growing branch of medicine.

Dr. Justin Nast is part of a unique partnership between the American Red Cross and the U.S. Air Force.

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Emergency Phone Call Connects Doctor to Red Cross

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Alex Keilty

When U.S. Air Force service member James “Eric” Bermudez received an urgent phone call from the American Red Cross notifying him of a family emergency back home, he had no way of knowing that it was one of many encounters that he would have with the Red Cross while he served. Even after retiring from the Air Force, his relationship with the Red Cross would continue, as he would take on a vital volunteer role.

That phone call came while he was an enlisted medical technician. “The Red Cross called me at my duty station. I was at work, and they called and said we want to put you in touch with your mother; she needs to talk to you,” says (now) Dr. Bermudez (who went on to become an officer and physician in the Air Force, after graduating from medical school). The Red Cross has a unique relationship with the armed forces, which includes helping service members connect with their families during times of emergency. So, on that day, the Red Cross tracked down Dr. Bermudez so that he could talk to his family.