RTD provides warm place for evacuees
By Josh Egbert, American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming
When a fire broke out in the early morning hours of October 31, 2022 at a Lakewood apartment complex, the American Red Cross was there. Volunteers provided the comfort, care and compassion like they always do. Helping families out in their darkest moments. But also on scene, an unlikely partner, RTD.
The Regional Transportation District is the regional agency operating public transit services in Denver and the surrounding cities. From buses to light rail, they get people to where they need to go. But on that Halloween morning, Theresa Excell arrived in an RTD bus, not to make a stop, rather to be a warm place for those forced from their apartments to gather.
“The county and the Red Cross reach out to us and we coordinate to get a bus to the location,” explains Excell. “We provide shelter buses to keep people warm.”
Excell has been with RTD for 15 years and says the partnership was strong before she started driving her first bus.
That partnership began as a way for evacuees to stay warm and a safe place to go right after tragedy strikes. But most recently, they’re providing shuttle buses to transport people to evacuation centers or shelters.
“Sometimes these people have no means of transportation, so we can get them to these safe places and to the resources they need,” said Excell. “It’s a great thing, I don’t think a lot of people knew it even existed.”
And it’s not just fires, RTD recently provided a warm place for drivers to go after a 100-car pileup near downtown Denver in early November. “We’re not just about transporting people, we’re helping to provide safety, we’re all about community,” said Excell.
Partnerships are an important aspect of the Red Cross mission. We simply can’t do it alone. But partners, like RTD, are helping the Red Cross make communities safer and easier to get those affected by a disaster to the help they need.