By Alana Mauger

The American Red Cross has been providing comfort and support nonstop to thousands of people across the country affected by the massive disasters that have occurred since 2023 began.

Since the first of the year, more than 3,400 trained Red Cross disaster workers from across the U.S. – including 16 from Southeastern Pennsylvania – have delivered sorely needed assistance out west where relentless atmospheric rivers inundated California, as well as across the South and Midwest where deadly tornadoes and storms ripped through multiple states, upending entire communities.

Several of our local volunteers have already deployed more than once in 2023, with others extending their deployments beyond 2 weeks:

• Jayne Cabnet and Donna Zacker have extended their virtual deployments with the National Call Center multiple times, supporting reunification and recovery efforts for multiple disasters over several months.

• Larry Daly deployed to work with the Disaster Emergency Supplies team in California in January, then again with the Logistics Team in Arkansas this April.  

• Heidi Dampman has been deployed to Mississippi for over a month, serving as the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) Coordinator.

• Will Dobnak deployed virtually for two weeks with the National Call Center before deploying to California to work with Disaster Health Services in April.

• Fred Lehman deployed to California for 3 weeks each in January and March, and most recently was deployed to Oklahoma to serve with the Red Cross Logistics Team.   

We’re grateful to all of our local volunteers who have deployed since January. They include:

• Hal Cohen, Life, Safety and Asset Protection, Oklahoma
• Mark Greenberg, Disaster Mental Health, California
• Dianne Heard, Mass Care Feeding Manager, Mississippi
• Valeria Kania, Disaster Intake Worker, Arkansas
• Mary Noll, Transportation, Mississippi
• Dinae Norris, Mass Care Sheltering, California
• Eileen Rall, Disaster Emergency Supplies, California
• Kenneth Soondar, Mass Care Sheltering, Mississippi
• Carol Sprang, Disaster Mental Health, Tennessee
• Cheryl Wade, Disaster Spiritual Care, California

These large relief efforts are on top of the thousands of home fires and smaller disasters in local communities that our Red Cross volunteers respond to every day. To learn more about volunteer opportunities at the American Red Cross, visit redcross.org/volunteertoday.