By Mary Jo Blackwood
In honor of Mother’s Day, we wanted to highlight some mother-daughter duos who are helping the American Red Cross make the world a better place
Lisa Schrader and her daughter Jenni Schrader Sparks
For Lisa Schrader, you might say Red Cross is in her blood(line). Her grandmother was a WWI trained homeland nurse for Red Cross starting at the age of 17. Her mother made it a point to volunteer for Red Cross blood drives everywhere they lived. So it’s no surprise that these third and fourth generation Red Crossers are helping us today.
Says Lisa: “Our two kids both took the American Red Cross babysitting courses and babysat in our neighborhoods. The Red Cross, because of my family connection, was always top of mind for a charity we like to support. We live in Castle Rock, and during the Hayman fire in 2002, the whole Denver Metro area was covered with smoke. We felt so helpless, and knew if we donated to the Red Cross, they were on the frontline of this fire, helping those affected. Then there were floods in Texas where my husband is from, tornados that devastated the heartland, and hurricanes that took a toll on the coastal areas. We couldn’t physically help those who were affected, so we continue to send money to the Red Cross during those national disasters.”
Now an active Tiffany Circle member, Lisa not only continues to donate, but further helps fundraising by being the volunteer partner for Josett Valdez in Fund Development. In addition to helping her, Lisa also participates in the Tiffany Circle service projects, including the pillowcase project, a preparedness education program for elementary school students; and the mapping project, which, with a combination of remote and local volunteers, identifies structures in a geographic area where people are potentially living and may need humanitarian aid during a crisis. Before the Covid hiatus, she was also involved in the Backpack project for new military mothers.
When not working for the Red Cross, Lisa, a semi-retired Lutheran pastor, spends one day a week funding, helping prepare and distributing brown-bag lunches for the homeless in Denver’s Civic Center Park. Her husband’s business employees provide and assemble the lunches on Wednesdays, to give the regular provider a much needed day off. The business, Applied Control Equipment, provides 144 lunches every Wednesday, over 45,000 in the past nine years. Even in that endeavor, Lisa assisted the local Red Cross as they took over one Wednesday, food, assembling the lunches and delivering them.
Daughter Jenni Sparks is a young professional on the Associates Board of the Chapter. This active dynamic group is the next generation board members who network and develop service projects and fundraising, sometimes even challenging the Chapter Board to match their fundraising goals.
“I have been with the Associates Board for almost two years. Before that, I volunteered in high school. Our board planned and executed a fundraiser for the Red Cross annual soiree, their biggest fundraising event. We planned the afterparty and got Colorado wine merchants to donate nice bottles of wine we could raffle off. For Colorado Gives Day, we challenged the Board to meet our fundraising, and we really exceeded expectations on that!”
Jenni just finished her MBA degree. As part of that, she and another Associates Board member in the MBA program chose the Red Cross for their capstone project, helping the chapter find additional ways to raise money in Colorado, and putting their business acumen to good use. Jenni and Lisa also donate blood regularly together, and were recently involved in the local Red Cross blood drive in Denver.
Caren Elenowitz and her daughter Abbey
It is up to us to inspire our children, and Caren Elenowitz did just that. Knowing her mother’s affection for the Red Cross, when 11-year old Abbey’s teacher charged her students to do a kindness for their community, Abbey decided to do a bake sale to raise money for the American Red Cross. She and Caren made baked goods and took them to a park to sell. Abbey raised over $20 for the chapter.
It is up to us to inspire our children, and Caren Elenowitz did just that. Knowing her mother’s affection for the Red Cross, when 11-year old Abbey’s teacher charged her students to do a kindness for their community, Abbey decided to do a bake sale to raise money for the American Red Cross. She and Caren made baked goods and took them to a park to sell. Abbey raised over $20 for the chapter.
Caren got her own inspiration for giving back from her mother. She has been giving money, time and even blood to the Red Cross for some time. And she never gets tired of hearing the amazing personal stories of the impact Red Cross has on the communities they serve. Currently, she is Ashley Brush’s volunteer partner in Fund Development and does whatever Ashley needs done. She especially likes inputting donations and sending acknowledgement letters to donors. “It is such a great feeling to know that whatever a donor gives us, a dollar or a thousand dollars, they know they have done something really helpful.”
This Mother’s Day, we salute these mothers and daughters who are helping the American Red Cross continue to meet the needs of our communities and inspire future generations to bring us along as those needs evolve.
