Red Cross volunteers from the Silicon Valley Chapter take time out from their work on February 24 to pose for a photo at the mobile home park.
By Larry Dietz
On Saturday, February 24, volunteers from the American Red Cross of the Silicon Valley installed 164 smoke alarms in the Moss Creek Mobile Home Community in San Jose. The work was done as part of the Red Cross’ regional Sound the Alarm – Save a Life campaign. Read more
Peggy Goebel is shown with Rene Steinhauer, center, and State Senator Mike McGuire.
American Red Cross volunteer and Windsor resident Peggy Goebel had barely unpacked from her deployment to Hurricane Harvey when she was evacuated to the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building in the early hours of October 9. She was one of hundreds of area residents, fleeing wildfires, who were streaming into the facility. Read more
By Virginia Becker
Brad Gordon
As much as Brad Gordon imagined doing volunteer work, for most of his life he simply had no extra time to pursue that dream. Living in Los Gatos, Brad was understandably busy with a family that included two children and work that was defined by a 35-year career at IBM.
But Brad’s availability changed in 2010, when he decided to retire. Without the demands of a full-time job and with both of his children now grown, he was suddenly quite free to reconsider his dream of pursuing volunteer work.
In Brad’s case, that dream has become a very vivid reality … with the American Red Cross. Read his story Read more
The nationally broadcast “Hear and Now” radio program recently featured a touching story about a 19-year-old Red Cross volunteer. In the story, Andrew Enos describes his season of deployments — taking him from Texas to Florida to Northern California (our region).
The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake not only introduced Rick Martinez to a career in law enforcement, but to years of volunteer service with the American Red Cross. Read his story. Read more
By Lori Wilson
Corporate responsibility is the new buzz phrase for a corporation’s community support, however that support is manifest. Some give financial donations, some in-kind donations, some volunteer hours, and some a combination of all of the above. In the Northern California wildfires, we saw no shortage of corporate responsibility, an example of which is the gift of a volunteer named Gregg Weismann.
Gregg had volunteered with the Red Cross for many years, supporting the Silicon Valley Chapter as a Disaster Team Captain. But he became inactive about five years ago as life took over and his ties to the organization became less than they were. However, when the 2017 fires started and it became apparent that we were going to see a fire response like never before in California, he reached out to offer his services and expertise once again. Gregg was quickly asked to help on our shelter support team, the team that is responsible for making sure Red Cross shelters have what they need. For the Shelter Support Manager Alex Rose, Gregg was a welcome addition because he brought “professional capabilities to the job that we did not currently have with existing volunteers” and because “it is always an honor to serve next to someone that brings such a rich history of service with the organization.”
When Gregg arrived at the Disaster Headquarters he only had one week to give; that was all he had saved of PTO to use. As his time to return home to San Jose approached, he felt that he had work left undone and had more to contribute. So he and Alex crafted a request to Gregg’s Manager requesting more time off if possible. The repose came back quickly with not only the additional time off granted for PTO, but with the decision that Gregg would not have to use any PTO, that Comcast would simply loan him to the Red Cross and his wages would be paid in full.
This is only one way that Comcast has supported this response; they were also critical to many of our IT issues, helping to set up our networks at shelters so that those evacuated by the fires could connect with loved ones and let them know they were OK. Comcast has been an invaluable partner, and we are very thankful for the support. We are excited for what the future may hold with the possibility of building on that partnership. As Alex said, “Maybe it will result in even more Comcasters helping us in our operations of a disaster and a deeper volunteer pool, for a stronger response.”
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Jim Burns provided editorial support for this story.
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