Last year, in the wake of historic flooding along the Arkansas River, American Red Cross volunteer and retired EMT and firefighter Rod Cadman approached a woman who stood weeping on her front lawn. The woman had just lost her home and everything in it, and Cadman was there to offer her what he could; in this case, fresh water bottles from the tailgate of his pickup. As Cadman tried to console the woman, he saw that she was holding a box, which she opened to reveal a large family bible he guessed to be about two hundred years old. The book held family photographs and locks of hair. It was all but ruined by the flood.
Cadman, who serves as Logistics Lead for Colorado’s western chapter, offered a possible solution: freeze the book and send it to a lab for restoration. The woman brightened, seeming hopeful, and Cadman had the sense that she would follow-through on his advice.
It’s one of many moments that stands out from the Mesa, Colorado resident’s two-plus years of volunteer service with the Red Cross, which has taken him from storm-battered sites in the Virgin Islands to natural disasters in at least five states.
A key member of the Disaster Action Team, Cadman focuses on warehousing and supply, which means getting emergency resources like food and water to those in desperate need. After 2018’s Hurricane Michael ripped through northern Florida, he and other volunteers loaded up 17 box trucks full of supplies each day and headed to hard-hit Mexico Beach, distributing food, water and other useful items like shovels and cooking charcoal. “I like getting the stuff to people who need it,” he says.
The team used real-time mapping technology and other geographic information systems to coordinate relief efforts across the northern part of the state, where downed trees looked like toothpicks laying on the ground by the million.
After a disaster, distributing supplies to devastated neighborhoods can sometimes involve knocking on doors, leaving door hangers or supplies on doorsteps. Most of the time, though, people are outside their homes working to secure rooftops, or hauling out lost belongings.
Cadman remembers one man from Mexico Beach, who stood on the roof of his house next to the ocean. The roof had no shingles and very little plywood. Cadman asked if the man needed anything, which the man humbly declined. He pressed on, explaining that the Red Cross had tarps to offer. That got a reaction, Cadman says. “His eyes lit up, and he said, ‘you have tarps?’ and I said yeah I have tarps, how many do you want? And he said one. I told him the tarps came in bundles of six and gave him a bundle.” The man began to cry. “And when he cried, we all cried. It was a very humbling experience.”
Such gripping fieldwork, combined with a home away from home quality to deployments, often leads to lifelong friendships among Red Cross volunteers. The bonds can be especially meaningful to retirees, who lack the day-to-day social milieu of a workplace. “It’s working out really well for me and many people that I’ve met. I’ve been in correspondence with half a dozen friends and acquaintances,” Cadman says.
While he enjoys the unique challenges presented by each disaster response, it’s the spirit of helping others, using whatever resources are at hand, that he finds the most rewarding. For those looking to volunteer, he offers some simple advice: “Start with the small stuff and work your way up.”