Disaster Action Team – American Red Cross Minnesota and Dakotas Region

Disaster response volunteer honored with regional Lifetime Achievement Award

In the small, scenic city of Redwood Falls, Minnesota – a place rooted in community – lives a woman whose quiet strength and unwavering compassion have rippled far beyond city limits. Her name is Diane – a Red Cross volunteer.

For 20 years, Diane Radel has been a steadfast presence in moments of crisis. From the wreckage of Hurricane Harvey to the fierce winds of Hurricane Ian, from catastrophic flooding in Louisiana, she has deployed to 18 national disasters. Closer to home, she’s responded to apartment fires and local disasters, always showing up when her community needs her most.

Diane on the ground during one of her many disaster deployments over the past 20 years — a testament to her decades of service and resilience.
Photo submitted.

Her roles have varied – driving Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) to deliver warm meals, comforting survivors in emergency shelters, and distributing supplies to families facing unimaginable loss. But no matter the task, Diane brought more than resources – she brought hope, dignity, and a calming presence in moments of chaos.

A Calling Found in Crisis

Diane’s journey with the Red Cross began with a single image – a newspaper photo of volunteers in iconic red vests responding to a tornado in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, in 2003. She didn’t know it then, but the image planted a seed.

In 2005, when Diane’s father passed away, she found her daily routine unraveled. “I was a lost pup,” she remembers. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Then came the call for volunteers after Hurricane Katrina. “They said it was a three-week deployment, all expenses paid,” Diane recalls. “I had the time. Although I had seven kids, three in college – it just lit a fire in me.”

Diane, wearing her Red Cross vest, stands with clean-up kits ready for distribution during a disaster deployment — one of many in her years of dedicated service. Photo submitted.

After speaking with fellow Red Cross volunteer Barb Billmeier, Diane took the leap. “It was the first time I’d ever been away from home that long,” she says. But her husband and children encouraged her, saying, “Go…they need you more than we do.”

With compassion as her guide, Diane stepped into the role of caring for people finding refuge in a Red Cross shelter helping those who had lost everything. That first deployment marked the beginning of a journey that has spanned two decades.

Service Across the Nation

Diane’s volunteer work took her to disaster zones across the U.S., including a Thanksgiving spent helping in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in New York. “I thought I should be home with my family, but I just felt I needed to go and help,” she remembers, “but once again, they said, ‘Go…they need you more than we do.’”

One unforgettable memory from that deployment was delivering meals in the ERV to a high-rise in Chinatown that had lost power. “We didn’t serve the meals directly – we dropped them off. While waiting to pick up the food containers, Diane and fellow volunteers took a walking tour near Ground Zero, witnessing the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. “It was humbling,” she said. “A moment of grace in a difficult time.”

Diane also mentions her deployment to help those affected by Hurricane Helene last fall. She remembers the mountainous terrain and survivors still waiting for word on missing neighbors. “Someone said we needed to be strong for them – but no, we cried with them,” she recalls.

Diane, photographed near Asheville, North Carolina, during Hurricane Helene relief efforts in October 2024. Photo submitted.

A Life of Service

When asked what she’d say to someone considering volunteering with the Red Cross, Diane doesn’t hesitate. “Do it! It’s rewarding. Your heart has to be in it but give it a try. You’ll get way more back than you ever give.”

She speaks honestly about the challenges – long days, sleeping on cots, working with all kinds of people – but insists the rewards are worth it. “Any time you volunteer, it’s a blessing.”

Strength In the Face of Her Own Storm

In 2018, Diane faced a new battle: breast cancer. After a double mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and five years of treatment, she was declared cancer-free – until last year.

In November, scans revealed cancer had returned, spreading to her spine and lymph nodes.

“There’s no timeframe,” she says softly. “It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Though her body has slowed, and she can no longer donate blood – once a treasured part of her Red Cross work – her spirit remains unshaken. “My heart is still in it, even if my body isn’t.”

A Lifetime of Meaning

Diane was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Red Cross. She recalls, “As they were reading the award, I thought, wow, that sounds really good and then I realized, they were talking about me!”

Diane receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Red Cross, presented by Sean Farley-Cowdin, Senior Community Disaster Program Manager, at the Volunteer Recognition Event in Mankato, MN on May 20, 2025. A proud moment honoring years of dedicated service and compassion.

Sean Farley-Cowdin, Senior Community Disaster Program Manager for the Red Cross Minnesota and Dakotas Region presented Diane with the award. “When the need is most, Diane doesn’t hesitate – she simply shows up. From the very beginning, with more than enough on her plate she had every reason to say, ‘not now,’ but she didn’t – she leaned in. She said yes. Yes, to her community. Yes, to the mission. Yes, to strangers facing the hardest day of their lives. Because for Diane, helping isn’t a duty – it’s who she is.”

Looking back, she says, “The years just flew by.” Each deployment forged lifelong friendship. “It all felt so natural – it’s my passion and what I was always meant to do.”

To serve with such compassion for 20 years requires an extraordinary heart. Diane’s legacy lives on in every life she’s touched – not through fanfare, but through quiet heroism, deep empathy and human connection.

Her story reminds us that true service comes from love – and a heart that never stops giving.

“The forecast is predicting a severe hurricane season this year,” she says, “I wish I could be there to help – it’s in my heart.”

For all who know her, one thing is certain: the world is better because Diane chose to help – again and again – with love, conviction, and a full heart.

If you have a heart to help like Diane, learn about Red Cross volunteer opportunities near you visit redcross.org/givetime.

By Kaylee Beevers, American Red Cross intern

Across the United States, the American Red Cross has people who volunteer their time as dispatchers during Red Cross disaster responses. These volunteers help fulfill the Red Cross mission to reduce human suffering during emergencies. Red Cross dispatchers coordinate response teams that provide basic comfort and care to families after home fires and other disasters. These dispatchers serve their communities with care. This volunteer role is one of the most worthwhile ways to get active in the Red Cross. Below are brief portraits of five volunteers who serve as disaster response dispatchers for the Minnesota Red Cross region.

Mike and Deb Hofmann, St. Cloud
Based in central Minnesota, Mike and Deb Hofmann proudly serve together as Red Cross volunteer dispatchers. The couple met in high school and they currently living in Cold Spring. Mike has served the American Red Cross for 40 years through multiple volunteer positions and Deb has been with the organization as a dispatcher for 10 months. Some of the most rewarding parts of the job for the couple is knowing you can help people during their time of need and offer services. Deb says, “When they’re looking for a way to go, we give them a direction.” Their advice? If you want to get involved, connect with your local Red Cross chapter.

Diane Dunder, Duluth
After retiring as a health and physical education teacher, Diane Dunder decided to take on the volunteer role as a Red Cross disaster relief dispatcher. Dunder says she was graced with “the best instructors who knew what they were doing and were very well informed about the job.” Some of the role’s challenges in her area, she says, are not having enough field responders as well as other dispatchers. “We all have other things going on in our lives and yet more help would be appreciated.” One of Dunder’s greatest rewards while serving as a dispatcher was helping an elderly woman after a house fire. The victim had health issues and Dunder spent several days following up and working with healthcare and mental healthcare professionals to make sure that the woman was safe. “Being a dispatcher is a great way to volunteer and keeps you educated,” says Dunder.

Joe Reinemann, Mankato
Stationed in the southwest Red Cross chapter in Mankato, Joe Reinemann has been a volunteering dispatcher for more than a year. Reinemann usually works as a dispatcher during night shifts that start from 4:30 to midnight or from midnight to 8 am. Reinemann, who helped create the most recent dispatcher training materials, says “we’re upgrading our dispatcher manual. It’s extremely hands-on. It’s also one-on-one.” Reinemann felt nervous when he received his first dispatch call for Red Cross disaster response. He wanted to make sure that everything went well, but he says “the help and training are so great that sometimes you don’t even need any assistance from other dispatchers.” Reinemann’s advice to future volunteers is to “DO IT! It may be imitating to sign up, but it’s not complicated at all.”

Jan Reyers, Mpls-St.Paul Metro
Jan Reyers has served as a volunteer with the Red Cross for more than 35 years. Most currently, he’s disaster response dispatcher based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Originally from White Bear Lake, Jan is proud to serve with the Red Cross alongside his wife Bonnie, who is also a dispatcher. “It’s always nice to have your wife as a dispatcher to help coach you along.” Being a dispatcher has taught Jan how to prioritize what he’s doing and to get it done correctly. Jan says the skills you need in order to become a dispatcher are communication, organization of information and people, and demonstration of empathy. Having served as a disaster responder in the field helps. “Get involved, sign up and be available to serve,” is Reyers’ advice to all anyone who wants to participate with Red Cross disaster relief teams.

Learn more
The need for Red Cross volunteer dispatchers is great. Last year the Red Cross supported more than 2,500 people affected by local disasters, which were mostly home fires. It’s a great way to serve and to meet new people. The current Red Cross dispatchers need to you step up and to get involved! More importantly, your neighbors, friends, family and thousands of others across this region need you. You never know when hard times will strike and you could lend a hand to someone who needs it the most. You could be the person who gives someone hope during a time of despair and a way to look toward a brighter tomorrow. To learn more, click here.