Tag Archives: Red Cross Training

It’s National Volunteer Week

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Volunteer Profile; Pat Crawford

By Sue Wilson, Red Cross Volunteer

What would we do without the selflessness of those who give their time by
volunteering?

In honor of National Volunteer Week (April 21-27), we are featuring profiles of some of
the dedicated volunteers who help the American Red Cross fulfill its mission in Northern
Ohio.

From left: Gail Wernick, Pat Crawford, Kelsey Jeffrey, Debra Kellar, and Kevin Brooks of the Northern Ohio Region Volunteer Services team, and Rachel Hepner, Executive Director, Western Lake Erie Chapter

Pat Crawford spends most of her time honoring and thanking others for their service.
From her home base in the Western Lake Erie Chapter, headquartered in Toledo, she
handles the five chapters in the Northern Ohio region as the Regional Volunteer
Services Recognition and Appreciation Lead. If you thought that in this crucial role in the
Volunteer Services Department, Pat seems to have volunteering in her blood, (pun
intended) you’d be right! And she passed down that heart to serve to her sons: her
eldest was Red Cross trained in water survival, first aid/CPR and was a lifeguard, and
her youngest is a law enforcement officer in Findlay. 

Like many who volunteer, Pat has a Red Cross story. 

Pat’s oldest son and his family moved to Louisiana. When Katrina hit, their home
experienced extensive damage, and they had to come back to Ohio for awhile. Pat will
be forever grateful for the tremendous support the family received from the Red Cross.
Beyond that, Pat appreciates what the Red Cross does for our military.

“I have many family members and friends that were and still are in the military. I know
what the Red Cross does to help our servicemen and women and their families,” she
said. 

Pat’s volunteer experience started many years ago. She was a front desk receptionist
and a TeleCare call receiver. She was later “hired” by AmeriCorps to serve a year at the
Red Cross, but stayed on for four years, starting first in the Disaster Services office and
then moving to other areas like the Pillowcase Project and educational classes. After
her last AmeriCorps year, she retired and became a full-time volunteer for the Red
Cross. 

Volunteers Pat Crawford and Gareth Loboschefski catch up at a volunteer recognition event

What Pat loves most about her job as the Volunteer Services Recognition and
Appreciation Lead is expressing gratitude for the hard work of the many volunteers
throughout the regions’ five chapters.

“I feel it is very important to let volunteers know that they are appreciated and supported
for what they do,“ Pat said. “I feel really good when a volunteer wins a gift card or
receives a Red Cross item and they take the time to tell you how much they appreciate
it.”

While it may be the little things that Pat finds rewarding, she has one story in particular
that exemplifies the powerful life-changing and lifesaving impact volunteering can make.

One day, way back when she worked the phones, she received a call from a woman
who could not get in touch with one of her older female clients. “We called the police
and fire to do a wellness check on this person, because her daughter, who lived out of
town, hadn’t spoken to her since Saturday, and it was now Monday,” Pat shared. 

Pat called emergency responders who broke into the house and found the woman
unresponsive, but thankfully alive. When Pat went to visit the client in the hospital, the
grateful woman said, “you saved my life” — a comment she still gets goosebumps
about.

One of Pat’s dreams, and something she worked over two years to accomplish was to
get the Nurses Pin awarded at the Recognition and Appreciation Events. That dream
came true for Pat in 2023 and will continue every year. “They are special pins that have
numbers that are assigned to the volunteer nurse, and records of these pins are kept in
the archives in Washington, D.C.,” said Pat.

Pat Crawford, who spends much of her time honoring others for their volunteer work, is
a true example herself of what it means to be a Red Cross volunteer.

Edited by Glenda Bogar, Red Cross volunteer

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer

As temperatures drop, heat your home safely

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By Tim Poe, American Red Cross volunteer

I arrived home after jogging through a cool drizzle in fading gray light and heard the furnace’s low hum, recently woken from summer slumber. That sound will be a familiar undertone over the next few months, so I remembered to double check the filters and vents and schedule maintenance. As an American Red Cross volunteer, I have seen that forgetting these tasks can have tragic results, especially when space heaters are used, as they are involved in most fatal home heating fires.

As temperatures drop, the risk of home fires increases. Home fires account for most disasters to which the Red Cross responds, especially in Northern Ohio, and responses increase 30% during cold months. In 2022, for instance, the Northern Ohio Red Cross responded to 345 home fires in the last three months of the year, compared to 249 from July through September. And in just the first 15 days of October 2023, Northern Ohio Red Cross teams responded to 33 events, all home fires, and assisted 115 people.

To help keep you and your loved ones safe, here are a few home heating safety tips:

  • Have at least three feet of space between heating equipment and children, pets and anything that can burn. Most home heating fire tragedies occur when flammable items like furniture, rugs, bedding, and drapes are too close.
  • If you must use a space heater, never leave it unattended. Place it on a level, hard and nonflammable surface, such as a ceramic tile floor. Again, keep it away from anything flammable.
  • Look for models that automatically shut off if the heater falls over.
  • Plug space heaters directly into outlets, never into an extension cord, and turn it off when you leave the room or go to sleep.
  • Never use a cooking range or oven to heat your home.
  • Never leave a fire burning in the fireplace unattended. Make sure any embers are extinguished before going to bed or leaving home. Use a glass or metal fire screen to keep embers in the fireplace.
  • Have furnaces, chimneys, fireplaces, wood, and coal stoves inspected annually by a professional and cleaned if necessary.

Additional information and tips are available at redcross.org/fire, including an escape plan. You can also download free apps at redcross.org/apps.

Red Cross efforts to help prevent home fires and save lives when they occur have had tremendous success. The Home Fire Campaign—including Sound the Alarm, which originated in Northern Ohio—is credited for saving at least 1,969 lives since October 2014, 22 of them in Northern Ohio.

If you would like to request a smoke alarm or read more information about the Home Fire campaign, please click here.

Edited by Glenda Bogar, Red Cross volunteer

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross volunteer and board member

Water safety depends on swimming, lifesaving skills

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May 15 is International Water Safety Day

By Eilene E. Guy, American Red Cross Volunteer

Those of us who live in northern Ohio are never very far from water: Lake Erie, swimming pools, ponds, reservoirs and rivers. Even water parks, hot tubs and spas.

All that water offers lots of opportunities for fun, but it also poses a very real – sometimes tragic – hazard.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 4,000 people die of drowning every year in the United States. To put a finer point on it, drowning is the #1 cause of accidental death of children age 1 to 4.

The Bennett family of University Heights came harrowingly close to those statistics earlier this year. While on vacation, their four-year-old found her way into a backyard pool and was discovered unconscious at the bottom.

Fortunately, her 15-year-old sister, Ayala, had completed an American Red Cross lifeguarding, first aid and CPR course just two weeks earlier. She was able to perform CPR until medical help arrived and the little girl recovered.

Ayala Bennett, flanked by her father Josh and mother Raizel

For her lifesaving action, Ayala received the Red Cross Certificate of Merit, the highest award given by the Red Cross to people who save or sustain a life using skills learned in a Red Cross course. The Red Cross also recognized Shira Goldsmith of Goldsmith Swim School, who taught Ayala’s lifesaving class. “It made me feel so good, that she was able to save her sister,” Shira said. “It made me think, this is why I do what I do.”

Shira was just a teenager herself when she realized there weren’t enough lifeguards to safely supervise children in backyard pools in her neighborhood, so she got trained. “I did my first rescue at 15,” she recalled. She’ll never forget the rush of adrenaline and the overwhelming relief of success.

Shira Goldsmith, Goldsmith Swim School

Passionate about water safety, Shira teaches swimming as well as lifeguarding, first aid and CPR as a high school elective. She also has many students with special needs, African Americans and members of her Jewish faith.

“Even if you don’t know how to swim, learn CPR,” she emphasized. “You never know.”

The Red Cross certifies trainers like Shira as part of its mission to prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.

As we mark International Water Safety Day, the Red Cross offers these reminders:
 Learn to swim competently and be sure your children do too! Go to RedCross.org/TakeAClass
 Swim as a pair near a lifeguard’s chair. Never swim alone.
 Reach or throw, don’t go. Don’t enter the water to rescue someone unless you’re trained.
 Look before you leap. Be sure it’s a safe place and time to swim.
 Follow the rules. Listen to the lifeguards.
 Don’t just pack it. Wear that life jacket.
 Think so you don’t sink. Floating or treading water can help you make good decisions.
 Don’t fool with a pool or spa: Fence it with self-latching gates.
 Download the American Red Cross Swim app for more tips and tools for water safety for the whole family.

The American Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on Twitter at @RedCross.

Edited by Glenda Bogar, American Red Cross volunteer

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer

Employee’s lifesaving action inspires Red Cross training

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CPR being taught to workers nationwide

Jamell Fetter had not yet received First Aid/CPR/AED training from the American Red Cross through his employer, Estes Express Lines. But the Toledo man had already used CPR to save a co-worker’s life.

Jamell Fetter received a certificate and pin from Rachel Hepner, executive director of the Red Cross of Western Lake Erie

“I sat in on classes with my sisters and my friends who had to do all their certifications online,” he said. “I never had any formal training. Just watching the videos.”

Jamell said he was at a company lunch event in September, 2020 when he saw coworker Mark Benschoter on the floor, lifeless.

“I wasn’t thinking about it until afterwards, and I just knew he needed help, and I was there.”

Mark is back on the job, working every day with Jamell. “He is my personal security guard,” Mark said. “Every time we have a function, people will not let him go home until I do. He has to stay until I leave.”

After learning of Jamell’s lifesaving actions, company officials asked the Red Cross to provide First Aid/CPR/AED training to all managers, supervisors and directors at its facilities across the country.

“It’s a great project,” said Tom Zahler, director of corporate training and development for Estes Express Lines, based in Richmond, Virginia. “We’re really grateful we’re partnering with the Red Cross.”

Tom visited Toledo on the day Jamell was presented with the certificate of extraordinary personal action at the headquarters of the Red Cross of Western Lake Erie in Toledo. The award is presented to individuals for selfless and humane action using lifesaving skills.

“We’re training supervisors and above to be sure that someone on every shift, every day is available, should another event like this happen.”

Although Jamell isn’t at the supervisor level, he is being included in the training being provided by Estes Express Lines.

Mark Benschoter, Jamell Fetter and Tom Zahler of Estes Express Lines

“It’s working,” Tom said. “We hear stories all the time about people who are there when something happens.”

Information about First Aid/CPR/AED training is available at redcross.org /take-a-class.

Hear Jamell, Mark and Tom tell the story on our podcast, Be A Hero.

Posted by Ryan Lang, Red Cross board member and volunteer