By Pat Kondas, American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming Public Affairs Volunteer
“You must never think of anything except the need and how to meet it.” – Clara Barton
The American Red Cross has always had a close connection to the military. Founded by Clara Barton after her experiences during the Civil War, the Red Cross has assisted both military members and civilians during conflicts and natural disasters. Currently, about six percent of the volunteers and employees of the American Red Cross are military veterans. Among those veterans are Sharon Siedlecki and Pat Chappell, volunteers from the Colorado/Wyoming region.
Sharon Siedlecki
Sharon Siedlecki joined the Ohio National Guard in 1985 “…because they respond to disasters. That’s why I joined.” But she was mostly administrative and never responded to any disasters; her most satisfying duty was assisting personnel leaving for Iraq and making sure all their paperwork was in order. “That was special,” she says. She left the Guard in 1994 and joined the Peace Corps in 2017 because, she says, “I’ve always wanted to do good – feed people at Thanksgiving – that kind of thing.” She was assigned to a small village in the north part of South Africa, teaching English to grade school children and coaching track and field. Her experience there was good: “Everyone was so sweet and nice – so welcoming. The kids were fantastic.”
She returned to Ohio in 2019 and says, “Right after I got back (from the Peace Corps), I wanted to do something good, still. I wanted to continue that attitude.” She says she saw some commercials for the Red Cross and said, “Oh, yeah. I can do that.” So she joined and was assigned to a Disaster Action Team. When she moved to Colorado and joined the Colorado Red Cross, she wanted to do something different for veterans. She learned about Services to the Armed Forces and thought, “This really fits me.” With SAF, her duties include following up on emergency calls to make sure issues are resolved. Also, for people who just signed up, SAF calls their families to let them know what the Red Cross offers if they ever need assistance.
Currently, Sharon is on leave from the Red Cross and is deployed in Texas with the Customs and Border Patrol. But when she returns, she says she will pick up where she left off with SAF. And she’s hoping to work at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), where new enlistees go before being shipped out. She’ll be giving out information and doing presentations. She says she “really wants to get more ‘out there’ – maybe go to the Veterans Administration hospital,” to work there. She’ll continue her work with the Red Cross because, she says, “I know they need help. I think what they’re doing is fantastic.”
Pat Chappell
Pat Chappell knew from the time she was in the ninth grade that she wanted to be a nurse and she wanted to join the Air Force. She graduated from Florida State University School of Nursing and joined the Air Force. Over the course of thirty years, achieving the rank of Colonel, she served in various health service positions, including labor and delivery, flight nursing administration, and health care administration with the Veterans Administration, eventually working for the VA in Denver. Among the best memories of her military experience are the people she met. She says, “It’s a military family. Automatically you have a kinship; you have the same kind of commonalities. It was a great group of people that I was with.” And she says that was what drew her to the Red Cross,” – because of the same kind of service-oriented individuals.”
Pat joined the Red Cross in 2004 after she was introduced to some Red Cross nurses at what is now the Southeast Colorado Chapter. She says, “I started attending their meetings and wanted to know how nursing fit in with the rest of the Red Cross, so I started taking classes in other areas, like sheltering and mass care.” She began with a Disaster Action Team, and one of her best memories is responding to an early morning fire where she gave a teddy bear to a little kid and one to his father. The father seemed comforted as well, and she realized he needed that. She says she saw that “We (the Red Cross) are doing a good thing – a good service for our community.”
Pat has served the Red Cross in many capacities, including as a volunteer partner for Division Disaster Directors and Division Disaster State Relations Director, as a Division Health Services Advisor, and as a Member of the SECO Chapter Board of Directors. She has deployed forty-five times, mainly in External Relations. She says, “I really enjoy ER because that’s where it’s the whole community, whole society, whole government, and it’s nice to pull all those partnerships together in with the Red Cross. It’s like a one-team approach to disaster response, so there’s no duplication of efforts.”
Pat’s latest focus has been working with the Colorado Emergency Managers Association and the speakers committee, honing in on community resiliency and recovery. She says helping communities with preparedness and resiliency helps with recovery: “It’s like paying it forward.”
Veterans+
A new group has been formed in the Red Cross – Veterans+ (Veterans Plus) Resource Group — to support women veterans and all members of the military family who volunteer and are employed in the Red Cross. According to Joe Harris, the National Co-Chair of the group, “Veterans+, like all resource groups, is open to all American Red Cross volunteers and employees and works to make our organization more equitable and inclusive for all. Contact VeteransPlus@redcross.org for more information.”
The Red Cross still operates by the words of the first military nurse, Clara Barton: “The Red Cross is a part of us — it has come to stay — and like the sturdy oak, its spreading branches shall yet encompass and shelter the relief of the nation.”