Tag Archives: Northern Ohio Volunteers

Full Circle: A Hurricane survivor joins the Red Cross mission to help others 

Posted on by
Reply

By: Kathryn Dean, American Red Cross volunteer 

In 1996, two hurricanes made landfall in North Carolina: Hurricane Bertha, a category 2 storm, followed 8 weeks later by Hurricane Fran, a category 3 storm.  The combined damages produced by these storms in North Carolina totaled over 2.5 billion dollars and caused the evacuations of over a million people.  

Natalie Whitmer, American Red Cross volunteer

Natalie Whitmer, an American Red Cross volunteer based out of Canton, Ohio, was one of those evacuees.  She was living in North Carolina at the time and experienced firsthand being displaced to an evacuation shelter run by the Red Cross.   

Following the storms, she and her husband returned home to assess the damage. “We found that the front half of our mobile home was destroyed.  That’s where my daughter’s bedroom was, so a lot of their clothing and their bedding and all of that stuff was lost.”  Natalie explained. 

The Red Cross had also deployed ERV vehicles, or Emergency Response Vehicles, which drove through their neighborhood and provided food and water after the storm. 

 “They had set up an office, and they just asked the address, where we lived, what happened, what I’m missing, what I need help with, and they gave me a voucher to be able to go and get diapers and clothing for my children, which was amazing…I think it was like six weeks we were without water and electricity.”  

Her story came full circle when in 2024, now Red Cross volunteer, she was deployed to another pair of hurricanes, Helene & Milton, that hit within a 2-week timespan.  There she manned a Red Cross ERV and supervised an evacuation shelter.  Regarding that time, she reflected, “It’s amazing that I’m (now) on this end of it (and) able to do the same.” 

Since joining the Red Cross in 2023, Natalie has deployed multiple times to a variety of disasters, assisting in sheltering, feeding, and other vital roles.  She also now works as a Casework Supervisor Coordinator for the Northeast Ohio Chapter. 

“It’s extremely fulfilling and it’s just so comforting knowing that we have an organization out here that has all of this to offer,” she said.  “I never knew Red Cross had so much until I started working with them, and it just blows my mind. It’s just an absolutely beautiful organization, their mission and everything, and the people that run it, all the volunteers.” 

This holiday season, consider giving back to others by donating your time as a volunteer.  Click HERE to find out more about becoming a Red Cross Volunteer and all of the opportunities available at the Northern Ohio Chapter. 

Canada wildfires: One Northern Ohio Red Cross volunteer’s deployment story

Posted on by
Reply

By Ryan Lang, American Red Cross

As part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, national societies often support disaster response in neighboring countries. The American and Canadian Red Cross have a long history of this kind of collaboration, including sending volunteers to support sheltering and other disaster response work.

This summer, the American Red Cross deployed more than 115 trained disaster volunteers to help the Canadian Red Cross’s effort amidst the worst wildfire season in the country in the past 30 years.

Northern Ohio volunteer Paul Hiszem (second from right) with other Red Cross and Canadian Red Cross volunteers providing relief during the Manitoba wildfires, July 2025.

One of those volunteers is Paul Hiszem, from the Northern Ohio Region. Paul’s been a Red Cross volunteer for about five years and has been on nearly a dozen deployments. This one, however, was slightly different.

“We were expecting about 4,000 residents, but we only got about 400,” Paul said of the shelter he was working at in Winnipeg. “Residents of the affected communities were being evacuated by plane.”

Residents from outside Manitoba may not have had damage to their home, but were in mandatory evacuation zones, so they hopped on small planes and were taken to Winnipeg, where Paul and other Canadian Red Cross and American Red Cross volunteers and shelter workers were waiting for them.

“A vast majority of the people we were working with were indigenous,” Paul said. “Some of them didn’t speak English. Emotionally, that was a big challenge because they’d been away from home for so long. We interacted some, trying to keep them apprised of different schedules and things, but it was different, a different setup than a lot of the shelters I’ve worked before.”

With more than 100 volunteers joining the massive relief operation, it marked the largest support effort on behalf of the American Red Cross in Canada. Prior to this summer, in 2016, the American Red Cross supported relief efforts when an Alberta wildfire forced more than 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas to leave their homes in search of safety.

Canadian Red Cross volunteers are no strangers to supporting disaster relief efforts in the U.S., either. In recent years, 56 Canadian Red Cross volunteers have deployed to disasters across the United States. The American and Canadian Red Cross are two of the 191 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that make up the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network. Often referred to as National Societies, their roles differ country by country, but they are all united by our Fundamental Principles and all strive for the good of humanity.

And that’s what Paul is doing as a volunteer – striving for the good of humanity and working to prevent and alleviate human suffering in emergencies. Hear more of Paul’s story on the latest episode of our Be a Hero podcast here. And click here to sign up to be a disaster volunteer.  

Dedicated volunteer was the model of Red Cross caring 

Posted on by
Reply

By Eilene E. Guy, American Red Cross volunteer

After a career of more than 50 years in nursing and education, Carol McConnell came to volunteer with the American Red Cross because she wasn’t ready to retire from caring for people. 

Carol McConnell, Red Cross volunteer

Her fellow nurse volunteer, Melissa Seibert, said her friend embodied the compassion of Red Cross founder Clara Barton. 

For years, the two of them staffed first aid stations at Pro Football Hall of Fame events, where Carol’s nursing skills matched her caring personality. “She had beautiful white hair; she wasn’t skinny or hefty, just pleasantly plump. She walked with her shoulders back and her chin up. Her demeanor just said, ‘I care,’ Melissa said. 

“She had a soft touch; she was soft spoken. That put people at ease.”  

But Carol was no one-trick nursing pony. She began her Red Cross volunteer career in 1993 in disaster services. When she wasn’t comforting people displaced by a home fire or other calamity, she was often at the office of the Heartland, Stark and Muskingum Lakes chapter. 

She was always ready to volunteer for an activity related to the Red Cross mission, retired chapter executive director Kim Kroh said. “She loved to do outreach, to talk to people at festivals and health fairs. She was such an active volunteer; she was so kind, a gentle soul. 

“She was very involved with our campaign to install smoke alarms. She would go out every week,” Kim said. “Whenever we had a Sound The Alarm event to canvass neighborhoods to install alarms, she was always involved.”  

Carol was known for being reliable. She never quite got the hang of signing up on line for a project, but, “When she said she’d do something, you knew she’d be there,” Melissa said. 

That’s what alerted her fellow volunteers on the morning of March 26, when Carol didn’t show up for a smoke alarm install activity. Her Red Cross partners called the local fire department to do a welfare check. 

Carol had passed away quietly at home, at the age of 90. 

“I was shocked,” Melissa said. “Last year, she said to me, ‘I can’t wait to work with you again next year (at the Hall of Fame festivities)’… When I read her obituary, I couldn’t believe she was 90! 

“Red Crossers are a family, you know,” she said as she choked back tears. “We were devastated.” 

Carol’s family summed up her personality in her obituary: “She never met a stranger and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know new people.” 

The Red Cross gave Carol an outlet for her caring that never faded with the years. She is truly missed. 

National Volunteer Week Profile: Mark Auburn

Posted on by
Reply

By Ryan Lang, American Red Cross board member and volunteer

Volunteer work for the American Red Cross was never really something Mark Auburn considered. Now, 30 years into his service, he says the Red Cross has become a part of who he is.

Mark Auburn, American Red Cross board member and volunteer

“I don’t have a dramatic story, like many volunteers,” Mark said. “For me, it was swimming lessons when I was a kid – that’s where it started.” It was the personal connection that stood out to him. The time volunteers took with the members of his own community really made a
difference to Mark.

Then, when he found out that the majority of the entire organization was volunteers, Mark said he bought-in even more.

“Ninety percent of the people who work for the Red Cross are volunteers. That’s incredible!” And over the course of his 30 years with the Red Cross, Mark has seen those volunteers help people in his own community and around the world. To witness first-hand the reach of the Red Cross has been nothing short of remarkable for Mark.

“One of the huge changes in the Red Cross over my 30 years of volunteering is the sense of relationship between the Red Cross and the community. When I started, we were very locally focused.” Mark has since seen the reach of the Red Cross extend around the world.

Sharing his story with his fellow volunteers is a key part of the Red Cross experience for Mark. “I think it’s important that volunteers talk with other volunteers to learn their individual Red Cross stories.” That’s part of why Mark is looking forward to the upcoming Volunteer Recognition and Appreciation event in Akron.

Mark is not only a volunteer, he’s also a longtime member of the Greater Akron and the Mahoning Valley Chapter Board of Directors. And at 79-years-old, Mark is still going to meetings, face-to-face, to meet and work with fellow board members and other volunteers, all in the name of the Red Cross mission.

The biggest part of that mission is to “alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies.” Recently, Mark experienced his own health emergency when he was hospitalized with COVID- 19. “I had complications that resulted in an internal bleed,” Mark said.

During his hospital stay Mark suffered a stroke. As a result, he needed six units of blood. “Because of the blood donated by strangers I am able to tell my Red Cross story today. Someone I will never know gave blood because they believe in the mission of the Red Cross, and it saved my life.”

Mark has seen the impact the Red Cross has made in his own life and around the world, and he encourages everyone to find out more about it for themselves. To do so, visit redcross.org.

Posted by Ryan Lang, American Red Cross board member and volunteer

National Volunteer Week Profile: Dave Martaus

Posted on by
Reply

By Eilene E. Guy, American Red Cross volunteer

Semper Gumby: Always flexible. That’s a cherished characteristic of American Red Cross volunteers – and Dave Martaus is Gumby in person.

Dave Martaus, American Red Cross volunteer

“Dave is a key volunteer here at the North Central Ohio chapter. He’s willing to do anything that needs to be done – not just the high-profile, public-facing activities, but even the so-called ‘little things’ that keep an operation running,” said chapter Executive Director Todd James.

A retiree from Marathon Petroleum Corp. in Findlay, where he rose through a series of interesting assignments, Dave has been involved with Red Cross facilities maintenance, logistics, disaster response and support for our armed forces.

“Cheryl Wolfe (operations manager for the chapter) always has a list of things for me to do,” he said with a chuckle. Recently, he assembled a couple of new filing cabinets for the office. “Wasn’t something I’d ever done before, but it was interesting.

“When Lora Taylor (disaster program manager) came on board, we needed to account for our disaster trailers. So we brought all four trailers from around the chapter to a vacant garage here in Findlay and emptied all the contents,” he recalled. “We laid all the stuff out; it looked like a giant garage sale.”

He and his co-workers sorted the contents and repacked the trailers with the right number of cots, blankets, comfort kits and other supplies that would be needed in case of a major disaster. He said it was interesting, getting familiar with what’s involved in preparing for a big response.

Dave appreciates the variety of volunteer opportunities within the Red Cross. “I’ve thought about possibly getting involved with blood services,” he said. “I know they need people to transport blood (from blood drives to the blood processing center in Cleveland and from there to hospitals). I could do that.”

Dave Martaus is one of the more than 265,000 Red Cross volunteers that we’re saluting during Volunteer week. But their selflessness is invaluable all year round.

If you’d like to find out more about the many volunteer opportunities with the Red Cross, please click here for more information.

Edited by Glenda Bogar, American Red Cross volunteer

Posted by Ryan Lang, American Red Cross board member and volunteer

Number of lives saved tops 2,000

Posted on by
Reply

Through the work of our dedicated American Red Cross volunteers and partners, we have now saved more than 2,000 lives through our Home Fire Campaign. More than one-third of those are children.

Home fires are this country’s deadliest and most frequent type of disaster. Seven people in the U.S. lose their lives to a fire in their home every day.

Because of these tragic statistics, the Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign to reduce home fire- related deaths and injuries. Since its start in 2014, the campaign is credited with helping save 2,002 lives as of the end of November, 2023.

As part of the Home Fire Campaign, the Red Cross works with local partners to install free smoke alarms and share fire safety information with families. Through the support of our community partners and dedicated volunteers, the campaign has installed 2.7 million smoke alarms and helped to make 1.1 million homes safer.

Long before the launch of the national home fire campaign, the Northern Ohio Region was installing smoke alarms in homes locally. The effort began in the city of Cleveland in 1992, when businessperson and philanthropist Sam Miller joined with other civic leaders, the Cleveland Fire Department, and the Red Cross to reduce fire fatalities through installing smoke alarms and teaching fire safety.

More than 225,000 smoke alarms have been installed by the Red Cross and its partners in Northern Ohio, and 21 of the 2,002 lives that have been saved were in this region.

If you need smoke alarms in your home, visit our regional Home Fire Campaign page.

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer

Apartment building residents placed in short-term housing

Posted on by
1

Red Cross sheltering operations cease after six days

Residents of the Terrace Towers apartments in East Cleveland have been relocated to other short-term housing options, and the shelter operated by the American Red Cross has closed.

Red Cross workers preparing meal distribution.  Photo credit: Cuyahoga County Multimedia

More than 130 residents took refuge in the shelter for six nights, after fire forced them to flee on Monday, July 3rd . They took refuge the first two nights at the Salvation Army East Cleveland Corps Community Center. On Wednesday, the shelter was transferred to a dormitory at Case Western Reserve University. The shelter closed on Sunday.

It was the largest sheltering operation in Northern Ohio since 2004.

 Tom Revolinsky, Red Cross disaster program manager, and Alfreda Scott, Terrace Towers resident.  Photo credit:  American Red Cross

“We made a lot of friends,” said Tom Revolinsky, Disaster Program Manager for the Red Cross of Northeast Ohio. “A lot of the residents were understandably upset when they were forced out of their homes on the night before the fourth of July, but by the time they left the shelter on Sunday, we were getting lots of hugs.”

During the six nights of shelter operations, the Red Cross provided:
 525 overnight shelter stays
 2,023 meals
 304 health services
 256 comfort kits (personal hygiene items)
 125 blankets
 Continuous emotional support

Officials with RHM Real Estate Group, the Terrace Towers property management firm, is providing alternative housing options for the residents while repairs to the apartment complex are being made.

“We’re grateful to Terrace Towers property management for working so diligently this week to find alternative lodging for their residents,” said Emily Probst, Regional Disaster Officer for the Red Cross of Northern Ohio. “And we thank the Salvation Army for providing space for the first two nights, and Case Western Reserve University for opening one of their dormitories to these residents.”

Emmanuel Grant, Terrace Towers resident.  Photo credit: American Red Cross

Emmanuel Grant, one of the residents of Terrace Towers who took refuge at the Red Cross shelter, said, “One thing I appreciate about the Red Cross; they follow scripture when it said to extend hospitality, caring for your neighbor. So these things have really been a blessing.”

Alfreda Scott, Terrace Towers resident. Photo credit: American Red Cross

“My experience, believe it or not, has been wonderful,” said shelter resident Alfreda Scott. “It’s just been like a nice community, and everyone’s been hugging and supporting each other, and it’s been wonderful.”

She said once her housing situation stabilizes, she plans to become a Red Cross volunteer.

“I made some new friends.”

You can hear more from Emmanuel and Alfreda in this video here.

See more photos here.

Red Cross and County Emergency Management workers.  Photo credit:  Cuyahoga County Multimedia

The Red Cross received assistance from several organizations, including the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management, and several businesses stepped-up to provide meals, including Bon Appetit, Case Western Reserve University’s food service provider.

“No one organization can carry out such a challenging task alone, and we’re thankful for all the help the residents received,” said Probst. “We’re also indebted to our dedicated volunteer workforce. We could not have provided such valuable assistance without them.”

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Red Cross, visit redcross.org/volunteer.

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer

Using her spare time to give back to our community

Posted on by
Reply

By Sam Pudelski, American Red Cross volunteer

When Jenn Mayfield found herself with some extra time and a need to complete community service to graduate with her degree in IT, she immediately thought of the American Red Cross. “I know the Red Cross and the reputation of blood services and how [they help] so many people with blood products,” she said.

A little over a year ago, she began volunteering with the Red Cross Northern Ohio Region as a volunteer candidate screener. In this role, screeners speak with people who have signed up to volunteer with the Red Cross to help place them in a role that not only fits the candidate’s interests and skills, but also is a good fit within the organization. It also allows her to volunteer after work in the evenings and on weekends since it is a remote position. Jenn enjoys the role because she loves to volunteer and connect with people. “I know that every time I talk with someone on the phone or answer someone’s question, I feel like I’m contributing in a positive way.”

In addition to her role as a volunteer candidate screener, she decided to start a second role with Red Cross headquarters in the department of public inquiry in July 2022. Not only did it allow her to further her passion for volunteering, but she also learned more about the services the Red Cross provides internationally and here at home. With the public inquiry team, Jenn helps answer questions, inquiries, complaints and comments from the public. Since this role also is remote, she fits in volunteering as her schedule allows.

Jenn looks at her opportunity to volunteer as a way to do something rewarding with some of her free time. In addition to her two permanent volunteer roles, she checks the Red Cross Volunteer Connection portal for other opportunities to give back. In fact, she recently volunteered at the Dominion Preparedness Day on April 1st. It was her first volunteer event, and she brought her fiancée as well. In addition to volunteering, she gives back by donating blood whenever she can.  Jenn truly believes that every little bit can help our communities, “even an hour a day or a couple hours a week can make a big impact.”

To all of those who are thinking of the Red Cross, Jenn can’t recommend it enough. As a part of the volunteer services team, she knows firsthand there are tons of different roles across the system that can fit for various interests and skills. In Northern Ohio, there are plenty of opportunities that allow individuals to volunteer when it fits their schedule, offering both in person or remote roles. “Honestly, there’s something for everybody. There’s a volunteer role for everyone.” To learn more about current volunteer opportunities in Northern Ohio, visit us here.

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer