Volunteers Make Things Happen; Highlights for week of January 9, 2017

Volunteers respond to Denver Apartment Fire New Years Eve: 12/31/16

The American Red Cross of Colorado & Wyoming responds to calls for assistance, on average, twice a day.

Disaster knows no holiday, nor does it acknowledge a time of day. Volunteers respond 365 days a year, at all hours of the day or night. At this time of year, we are responding to freezing temps, flooding, home fires, and damage from wind storms.

From Dec. 26 – Jan. 8, Red Cross got nearly 30 calls for emergency assistance, helping 68 people. At least 22 were children under the age of 18.

Volunteers make this level of response happen on a regular basis; in addition to all the other amazing things our volunteers do every day. Keep reading to learn more:

 

• We are hosting a Home Fire Campaign to celebrate our annual MLK Day of Service on Saturday, January 14^th and we need your support.  A networking event will also follow this event. This year we are partnering with Arvada Fire Department to focus on an area where they have responded to four home fires in the past year, one of which a life was saved by a smoke alarm. Interested volunteers will be able to register themselves and any groups they are a part of here.
• MLK Day of Service Home Fire Campaign event in Pueblo, CO on Monday, January 16, 2017. This Home Fire Blitz is supported by Pueblo Fire Department and other local organizations. Similar to other campaigns, teams will install smoke alarms as they canvas home-by-home in selected areas.
• Find out more about other events happening in your area by contacting your local Red Cross office. You can find our contact info here: redcross.org

Would you enjoy being behind the scenes?  Talking to other volunteers?  Supporting both local and national disasters without leaving home? If you answered yes, Staff Services is looking for you!

Staff Services is responsible for getting the right people, at the right time, where they need to be to support a disaster response, and to ensure our staff and volunteers needs are met. Tasks may include deploying volunteers to another state to assist in hurricane recovery, calling local chapter members about a shelter opening from a nearby wildfire, managing event based volunteers during a local DR, coordinating lodging, and so much more. Also, much of the work we do is from the comfort of our own home!

If you are interested, there is some work to do ahead of time, but it won’t take much more than an hour or two. Request for instructions for pre-work and/ or to RSVP, can be sent to troy.staples@redcross.org.