By Todd James, American Red Cross

In my nearly 20 years with the American Red Cross, I have seen many times how our chapters across the country work together to deliver help where it’s needed. I’ve worked side by side with disaster responders from many cities, states, and even other countries. But it’s not only in disaster response that the Red Cross uses our national network of chapters to provide help. I recently had the opportunity to be a part of helping homes in West Virginia receive free smoke alarms as part of our Home Fire Campaign.  

It all started with a conversation between Joe Matuscak, a member of the North Central Ohio Chapter Board of Directors and Mark Spaetzel, the mayor of Avon Lake in Lorain County. Mayor Spaetzel asked Joe about the Home Fire Campaign, specifically how we provide free smoke alarms and preparedness education for families.  

A couple of weeks after that initial conversation, the mayor was in Charleston, West Virginia as part of a mission project with the United Church of Christ. He was one of 31 adults that accompanied 85 high school students to Charleston to assist the Appalachian Service Project in providing home repairs and help to low-income families in the area.  

As a construction manager for the project, Mark oversaw nine sites that teams were working on. He noticed that many of the homes did not have working smoke alarms and knew that, for many of these families, the cost of purchasing new alarms was not a cost they could afford. Recalling their recent conversation, Mayor Spaetzel called Joe Matuscak and asked him if there was anything the Red Cross could do to help.  

Joe immediately called me and explained the situation. I told him we would do everything we could to make sure those homes would receive smoke alarms and the safety they provide. I’ve worked on disasters with several members of the Central Appalachian Region team in West Virginia, so I reached out to one of my contacts who quickly put me in touch with Angela Akers, the Community Disaster Program Manager for the Charleston area. I called Angela and explained the situation and within a couple of hours, she had spoken to the mayor, arranged to sign his team up as a Home Fire Campaign partner and provided the smoke alarms and training the team needed to install the alarms and educate families on being prepared for home fires.  

Mayor Spaetzel said he wasn’t sure at first if making the call to Joe would help. “You think about big organizations and the bureaucracy involved and you don’t know if it’s going to work,” he said. “But this was seamless, and it was so easy. The training was quick and clear, and the Red Cross team made it easy and simple to help these families. I know the families appreciated it, because they didn’t currently have working smoke alarms and many of them had never had them.” 

Mayor Spaetzel said that in his position, fire safety and prevention are always on his mind and he’s looking forward to working with the North Central Ohio Chapter to make sure families in Avon Lake know about the Home Fire Campaign and have access to the program.  

Being a part of the Red Cross family means having family members across the country who are ready to help whenever it’s needed, wherever the call comes from. For more information about the Home Fire Campaign, visit redcross.org/NOH.