volunteer story – American Red Cross Minnesota and Dakotas Region

Hi, I’m Stephanie Raygoza-Garcia from the Minnesota and Dakotas Red Cross Region. I first became a volunteer in 2016 and responded to local home fires in my area. In the beginning of October, I headed out on a plane for a three-week deployment in Hawaii. I had hours of training to do before this could happen.

When I ﬁrst arrived on Maui, I saw all of the destruction in the Lahaina area, heard sad stories and the losses they had, what happened the day of the ﬁre and how it aﬀects their families today. This broke my heart. I knew then that this was where I needed to be. I was so glad I could help whereever I was needed.

The second day there I was assigned a non-congregate shelter for families that had separate rooms at a tourist resort. From that day forward, I was busy helping where I could. After a week there I became the shelter manager to the site I was assigned to.

I worked in the lobby area of the resort to guide people to the right person, that needed Red Cross Services, provided household and hygiene supplies to whomever needed them and handed out individually packaged meals for the families three times a day. Some just stopped by to talk and be listened to.

Since I had the same assignment for those three weeks I made a close connection with a lot of the families living at this resort. They were so grateful for us being there. Today, I am still in contact with some of them.

I met so many beautiful people from Lahaina and the surrounding areas and will never forget them and all their goals and what the future holds for them. I hope they can begin their healing and stay strong throughout.

The outpouring of love from everyone was awesome. They are very strong and resilient people, despite what they went through!

Thank you to Owen with the Red Cross in northern Minnesota for his support and believing in me to do this. Miigwetch!

The Red Cross would like to say thank you to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for its generous support of Band members who serve as Red Cross disaster relief volunteers in communities near and far.