As 2014 comes to an end, we took a moment to read back through the year and select our top 14 stories. Here they are, grouped by topic rather than in order of importance:
2013 Colorado Flood Recovery Effort
Flood Survivors: ‘It’s Like Beginning Again.
Alma and her family were awoken at 3 a.m. by a call warning them to evacuate immediately because flood waters were coming. Alma, husband Guillermo, daughter Perla, son-in-law Gerardo and grand-daughters Yamileth and Yaretzi escaped to Guillermo’s sister’s home, leaving everything behind in their Longmont mobile home…
A flood recovery solution MacGyver would be proud of
It’s a bridge. And not just any bridge: this bridge is mobile; it’s in a trailer so that the Glen Haven community can take it anywhere it might be needed to provide access over rivers and streams that are otherwise currently impassible…
When All Other Communications Are Down -Gold Hill Now Has a Solution
The danger, isolation and destruction of the 2013 Colorado Floods brought the realization that there was still a gap in their ability to communicate quickly with other towns and with emergency management in order to access and share vital emergency information – at a time when information is needed most, and could make the difference in saving lives…
Home Fire Preparedness Campaign
Volunteers visit homes in Fort Collins most at risk for home fire losses
Volunteers from the American Red Cross, Poudre Fire Authority and Hope Worldwide went door-to-door in a Fort Collins neighborhood surrounding Putnam Elementary School in an effort to save lives. The volunteers were targeting 139 homes that were selected due to higher risk of loss caused by home fires. Their goal: to provide education and resources to help prevent those home fires in the first place and save lives and reduce property loss in the event of a fire…
Disaster Response
Home Fire is Anything But ‘Routine’ For the Survivors
On a cold mid-November afternoon, in a tightly packed mobile home park in Brighton, a small fire in a garden shed spread to two adjacent structures, rendering each trailer uninhabitable…
International Services
Story From the Holocaust: Red Cross Reconnects Family History
A family patriarch survived WWII concentration camps, became an American citizen and lived a productive life in the United States. His family never knew until the Red Cross discovered his story and helped fill the gaps in the family history…
November’s Lunch and Learn to Feature “Lost Boy of Sudan”
Manyang Reath Ker Manyang, a “Lost Boy” displaced by the Sudanese civil war, spent 13 years of his young life hungry, homeless and displaced in refugee camps along the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. With the help of the Red Cross Restoring Family Links service, Manyang spent whatever time and resources he could reaching out to the family he’d lost in the Sudanese civil war…
Preparedness, Health and Safety Services
Red Cross Instructor Honored For 50 Years of Service
Doing anything for half-a-century is amazing and worthy of recognition all on its own. Few careers would span that length of time but when the career involves the teaching of lifesaving skills the recognition becomes that much more important…
Preparedness Paid Off for the Sharp Family (And It Will for You Too)
Personal and family preparedness is important, just ask the Sharps. For the last 15 years, Jessica Sharp has kept a box of important documents in a specific location so she could easily grab it in the event of an emergency. And that planning recently paid off when the Sharps experienced a fire followed by flooding in their home in Saratoga, Wyoming…
Service to Armed Forces
Service to Armed Forces Program Supports Warrior Transition Battalion
The Red Cross Service to Armed Forces program in Colorado provided direct support to the Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) at Fort Carson, Colorado, through the donation of customized recumbent bicycles…
2014 Month of the Military Child Essay Contest
Every year in April, the American Red Cross Service to Armed Forces program celebrates the Month of the Military Child. This year marks the third annual Month of the Military Child essay contest in Colorado. The theme this year was “What does it mean to be a military child?” …
My Red Cross Story
As part of our 100 year celebration we posted stories that were told by those who have been helped by the Red Cross and those who volunteer.
My Red Cross Story: My Daughter Gave Me My Life
I’m alive today thanks to my 18-year-old daughter, Julia. She had planned to work out one morning in February but instead stayed home – and came downstairs to find me collapsed on the living room carpet. My heart had stopped suddenly, and I had already turned ashen white…
My Red Cross Story: Four Generations of Red Cross Volunteering
See that beautiful girl on the left? That’s my daughter. (Yes, I am biased). Her name is Brinley, she is 16 years old, and she just earned Volunteer of the Month at the Pikes Peak Chapter of the American Red Cross. You know what you can’t see in this picture? The four generations of my family who have volunteered with the Red Cross…