Denny Smith before before the cancer. Photo courtesy of the Denny Smith family.
It is with a great sadness that that we say goodbye to Red Cross disaster action team member and dispatch volunteer Denny Smith, who passed away in late September. For the past 14 months Denny had been fighting a courageous battle with brain cancer, a fight that he did not give up easily.
After his retirement from law enforcement, Denny started volunteering on the Red Cross Emergency Medical Services Team with his wife, Karen, and in 2009, became one of our most active disaster responders. With his cheerful spirit, wonderful sense of humor, and passion to serve, Denny promptly became a valuable teammate and friend to many of us.
Denny remained active during the early stages of his brain cancer, often sending email updates, and attending meetings to stay connected with the group.
Denny is dearly missed and our hearts go out to his grieving loved ones.
Our Red Cross chapter mobile feeding on the road in Pennsylvania after the flooding. Photo credit: Rick Campion/American Red Cross
(from Rick and Karen Campion, Red Cross Emergency Services Volunteers based in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Today is day 16 of our Red Cross deployment to the Pennsylvania flood response and we’re on our way home to Minneapolis. This morning we cleared the final mobile feeding truck inspection and out-processing without a hitch.
This Red Cross national disaster response was well organized with a full complement of volunteers covering nearly 12,000 sq. miles of flood ravaged territory. Rick and I had a mobile feeding route in some of the hardest hit areas right along the banks of the Susquehanna River. We went from house to house to deliver meals. Many of the recipients said we were the first disaster relief people they had seen.
It was difficult to not get teary eyed when they expressed their sincere
appreciation.
We have traveled nearly 4000 miles since we left home on 9/11 and today was
a quiet ride allowing us time to reflect on our Pennsylvania experience. It’s easy to
be grateful for your blessings when you see the huge loss of so many.
We plan to be home this week and will see many of you soon.
Red Cross volunteer Dave Schoeneck displays his newly earned Red Cross pin from New Hampshire following Hurricane Irene. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Some of our Northern Minnesota Region volunteers are returning home after weeks-long deployments to states all along the east coast. Dave Schoeneck, one of our local volunteer stars, was in New Hampshire where he served on the government relations team. He returns happy to have deployed to help those affected by Hurricane Irene. Among the many take-aways for Dave: making new Red Cross friends, using and refining his response skills and knowledge, and earning a New Hampshire Red Cross pin. Go-Dave-Go!
The Red Cross response to Irene continues with more than 5,000 people relying on Red Cross shelters for a safe place to stay. To support this and other disaster relief efforts, you can make a donation via redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. You can also click here and learn more about becoming a Red Cross disaster relief volunteer.
Jeff Skoog is a Red Cross volunteer disaster relief work based in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Red Cross volunteers are amazing for about one billion-gazillion reasons. Take Jeff Skoog, who serves as a volunteer disaster relief worker during both local and national responses.
When Jeff could be out reeling in a sturgeon or walleye on this incredibly lovely summer day in Minnesota, he is instead here at work sprucing up the chapter’s mobile feeding truck.
For Liz, not working for the Red Cross is like not breathing. Wherever she goes, she wants to know: “Où est la Croix Rouge?”… “Where is the Red Cross?”
Let’s start with a war in east Africa in the 1990s. We know this war that happened in Rwanda and how people fled to nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“Help the Red Cross and the Red Cross helps you,” says Liz, who started with the Red Cross in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I am going to help the Red Cross until my death.” Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Some know this war better than others. Among them is Liz, a former Red Cross nurse who lived in a DRC border town with Rwanda.
“We gave food to refugees, put up tents, gave medical care, sent messages to families,” says Liz.
Liz responded for four years. As a Red Cross nurse, she tended to the war wounded, or in French “les blessés de guerre.” She helped until it was time to leave.
“Soldiers came and they tried to recruit my sons for the war,” she says.
She fled when her family left for Zambia and became a refugee. Even so, she turned to the Red Cross and started helping others.
“We helped friends and when others arrived from the Congo. We helped them with food, blankets, dishes, and pots. We approached them, to help them.”
Then she flees again. This time to South Africa where her passion for the Red Cross was put aside for getting food and money to support her children.
“Life there was hard. I could not work for the Red Cross in South Africa,” explains Liz.
Jump ahead several years to 2009 when she lands in the United States. One day while riding a bus in Minneapolis, she exits at a wrong (or perhaps a right) bus stop. That’s when she saw the Red Cross flag flying near the Mississippi River.
Dozens of manikin face masks need cleaning everyday for the next CPR + First Aid training classes. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
“I went there and I spoke to someone who asked me ‘what do you do?’ I told them and they said I will find a place for you.”
We could in this brief story dwell on the horror and trauma of war, but we will not. Instead, let’s turn to Liz and what inspires her to look for and serve with the Red Cross.
“The Red Cross helps me. It helps me to help people, to reduce suffering, to rescue people. They help me everywhere, not just in the Congo. They help people even back in the forest, sharing information. They go deep in the forest, even by foot, to help people.”
Like Red Cross people around the world, Liz serves without boundaries. In her country, she says, there’s a Red Cross song: “Night or day, blood or wound, always we serve.”
For Liz, this means serving for a lifetime, “I am going to help the Red Cross until my death.”
Liz is currently serving as a Red Cross volunteer cleaning manikins used in health and safety training classes such as CPR and First Aid for the American Red Cross Twin Cities Area Chapter in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
Story, photo, & video credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Paul Vanderheiden is among more than 340 Red Cross disaster relief workers responding to the May 22 tornado in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
When volunteers arrived for their shifts during the Minneapolis tornado clean-up day on June 4, a Habitat for Humanity volunteer likely received them, a Salvation Army worker probably handed them a meal, and American Red Cross responder gave them bandage packs, gloves, and other useful field supplies such as hand sanitizer and sunscreen.
Once in the disaster area, workers might have made contact with Red Cross mobile feeding trucks supporting the workers on what felt like the first day of summer.
“We’re out here to make sure these folks have enough water and snacks in all this heat,” said Paul Vanderheiden, a Red Cross volunteer from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Parking his van near a group of workers, Paul offered them advice. “Make sure you get some salt. Want some chips with that?”
Red Cross disaster relief worker Chris Thomsen surveys the unloading of water during the Minneapolis tornado clean up day on June 4. Photo credit: Bill Fitler/American Red Cross
Paul and fellow volunteer Chris Thomsen had been driving their mobile feeding vehicle around these neighborhoods every day since they had arrived the previous Saturday.
“Back home I’m a surgical nurse,” said Chris. “This is the first time I’ve worked outside the chapter on a disaster. We’ve been out here long enough so I’m starting to know folks, and I’ve been so touched by some of the stories I’ve heard.”
Paul and Chris are among more than 340 Red Cross workers, from as far away as California and Connecticut, helping people affected by the Minneapolis tornado.
To date, Red Cross disaster relief workers have distributed more than 145,000 meals and snacks to affected families and clean-up crews responding to this tornado disaster.
Red Cross disaster relief worker Jacob Tolle (l) and Daniel Schultz (r) are meeting one-on-one with families affected by the May 22 tornado in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Jason Viana/American Red Cross
Volunteers have come from many Red Cross chapters across the country to help the north Minneapolis residents recover from the devastating tornado that swept through town on May 22.
Take Jacob Tolle, 20, a caseworker for the Red Cross. Here from Cinncinati, Ohio, he has been trained for Red Cross disaster relief deployment for only five months.
“I want to give my attention to the families in need,” says Jacob.
His inspiration is one of amazing strength. At the age of 16 Jacob decided to take part in a demolition derby. The night before the derby Jacob’s stepfather told him he was nervous and thought participating in the derby was a bad idea. Despite what his father told him, Jacob took the risk.
“Not more than ten minutes into the derby my car started on fire and the whole car shot into flames while I was trapped inside with my seat belt on,” Jacob explains.
He was rescued from the burning car and rushed to Adams County Hospital where he was given multiple numbing medications. From there he was sent Shriners Hospital Burn Center.
“From day one of treatment, the doctors told me that I would be unable to walk for at least 6 months,” says Jacob.
With perseverance on his side, Jacob walked with a gait belt support within 3 days of his recovery treatment. A week later he walked on his own to check-up at the hospital.
Jacob has used his accident as a way to inspire others to never give up.
“That’s why I volunteer for the Red Cross, because of the devastation of someone telling you that you won’t walk,” say Jacob.
Jacob arrived in Minneapolis on May 27, just a few days after the tornado,and he plans to stay and help until things settle down.
Red Cross shelter night manager Sharon Collin says that she prefers volunteering during the night shift because "it's when you get to know the people and talk through the day." Sharon and McKai have a nightly chat. Photo credit: Amanda Mark/American Red Cross
Red Cross volunteer Sharon Collin is a natural organizer. A former movie theater manager, accountant and school teacher, she’s at ease while directing the flow of traffic that comes through the North Commons Recreation Center where the Red Cross shelter is housed.
Sharon is the night manager at this Red Cross shelter where 43 residents are attempting to rebuild their lives after the May 22 tornado destroyed blocks of North Minneapolis. One week into working at this shelter and Sharon has her routine down.
“I’m calling it organized disorder,” she says. “People are welcomed to come and go as they like as we try to create normalcy in the abnormal.”
Nearly all at once, Sharon sends someone to the snack room, finds a caseworker for another shelter resident, and hugs three kids in between the two tasks, promising one that she’ll tuck her in later.
“We have a lights out time,” she explained. “But one man works nights. Other people are night owls. I offer to fix snacks and hot meals during the night as people come through.”
Red Cross shelter night manager Sharon Collin shares a quiet moment with Willtin, 4. Photo credit: Amanda Mark/American Red Cross
While Sharon has responsibilities and organizational tasks to ensure that the shelter runs smoothly, she says she spends most of her time listening.
“No one wants to be here,” she said. “I listen to where they’re at, answer Red Cross questions, and match them up with services so they can move forward.”
Sharon travelled from Cumberland Foreside, Maine, to be the shelter night manager. She’s volunteered for the Red Cross in various ways for the past 6 years: working on disaster teams, supporting call centers and filling in any way she can, but her favorite assignment is working at shelters.
“People often enter a shelter at their lowest point. Red Cross volunteers enter a shelter, fresh with adrenaline and ready to help. Sometimes that’s really what people need. Someone to support them and provide the energy they don’t have.”
(Reporting and photos by Amanda Mark, Red Cross Volunteer)
Red Cross disaster responder, Ann Layton, offers a slice of her homemade "strata," an Italian casserole she made from leftover bread slices at the Red Cross tornado response headquarters in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Red Cross disaster response volunteers are extraordinary in many ways, but only a few would turn unused slices of bread into something yummy for dozens of fellow responders who’ve been working for days helping hundreds of families rebuild their lives after the May 22 tornado in Minneapolis.
Ann Layton, a Red Cross volunteer, saw the bread on her way out the disaster operation doors last night and brought the bread back this morning all done up as “strata,” an Italian casserole that’s darn comforting.
“The bread was dry and I needed to add more milk,” said Ann, who made three variations of the dish, which you assemble and refrigerate before baking and serving.
We think your strata dish is perfect… and we thank you’re extra great, Ann, for taking time to provide additional comfort for Red Cross disaster responders who are working hard helping others recover from this awful disaster.
Minneapolis tornado survivor Cathy Stolte shares her harrowing story with Red Cross volunteer Dave Schoeneck. Photo credit: Jason Viana/American Red Cross
Kathy Stolte was working on a cross word puzzle Sunday when she heard a crashing sound. She grabbed her dog and headed for the basement, but the tornado had already passed her north Minneapolis bungalow, leaving behind a path of twisted trees, broken homes and destruction.
Kathy, her husband, and her dog were fortunate — no injuries, just property damage. Part of the roof of their home blew off, and rain soaked the insulation, making the house uninhabitable. Her son’s car was skewered by a five inch tree branch, from windshield to floorboard. The worst damage was to the garage, parts of which currently reside in her neighbor’s kitchen.
Red Cross volunteers are providing water and snacks to people helping to remove debris after the May 22 tornado in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Jason Viana/American Red Cross
On Wednesday, as repair crews from the City of Minneapolis were hauling away the remains of large trees from their block, and crews from Xcel Energy were restoring electric power to their block, Kathy was grateful when a Red Cross disaster team from the St. Croix Chapter of the American Red Cross came down the street, offering food and water to anyone who needed it. Eric Nickolai and Sherm Boucher were busy handing out water, sandwiches, energy drinks and fruit to residents, volunteers, and work crews.
While Kathy faces weeks before her house can be reoccupied, she is one of the lucky ones who had homeowner’s insurance and has a place to stay temporarily. Hundreds of others were out trying to salvage their belongings and working to find food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their families.
American Red Cross Minnesota and Dakotas Region 