Patty O’Hara is a longtime Red Cross volunteer for client services for the Central Coast Chapter. She is also writer and winner of the Family Circle Fiction Contest of 2010 for her short story, “The Secrets of Celestial Navigation.”
Patty is generously donating some of the proceeds from her latest book, True East, to the American Red Cross. Read more
Mary Desautels was no stranger to service when awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award for Mendocino County in June. Mary has lived in Fort Bragg for 25 years, and for 17 of those years, she has volunteered with the American Red Cross. Read more
By Larry Dietz
About 50 volunteers from the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and the San Jose Fire Department fanned out this past Saturday in the Village of the Four Seasons in San Jose, as a part of the ongoing Red Cross Sound The Alarm campaign. Read more
By Fleur Williams
Janet Packer, right, recipient of a Clara Barton Award, is pictured with Michele Averill, CEO of the Central Coast Chapter. (Photo: Jim Hobbs)
One early morning in 2005, Janet Packer watched from her home in Aptos, California as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina played out on the TV news. Packer was immediately moved to respond, driving to the American Red Cross’s Santa Cruz office and arriving just as the doors opened at 8:30 a.m. “I’ll do anything you need me to do,” she said. Read more
Tyge Bellinger likes helping people. It’s been his “thing” ever since he was a little kid. He first volunteered in 2017, during his senior year of high school. He joined the Home Fire Campaign and has been doing it ever since.
“I think I’ll keep building my work with the American Red Cross, but I love what I’m doing,” Tyge says. “I like doing things that can help save lives. And I like the people I work with, too.” Read more
During the devastating Northern California fires this past October, every person who fled their homes — and in many cases, lost them — has a story to tell. So do the many Red Cross people who heroically stepped up to help in response to one of the most destructive weeks of fires in the state’s history.
Read our 2017 California Wildfires One-Year Stewardship Report
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