(Names have been changed to protect anonymity):
Lisa’s son Jason was deployed in Afghanistan when her mother passed away. Jason had been close to his grandmother, spending summers on his grandparents’ farm, and Lisa knew he would need to return home for her funeral to help himself and the family through the grieving process.
She called the American Red Cross of Western Wisconsin and was connected to a volunteer caseworker. The volunteer took down all of the information Lisa had regarding Jason’s name, branch of service, rank and social security number. The volunteer then called the funeral director to verify the death of Jason’s grandmother. The Chapter relayed the information to the Red Cross station in the area of the Afghanistan where Jason was stationed. He was granted emergency leave from his commanding officer and made it home to be with his family.
“I’m very grateful you could get my son home when his family needed him here,” Lisa wrote to the chapter a month later. “His grandmother was a very big part of his life and she is a big part of why he is in the Army. Thanks again for your help”!
On the morning of January 30th, Ron and Tracy Myers left their home for work like any other weekday. Around 1:30 in the afternoon, Ron received a disturbing call on his cell phone; his neighbor from across the street had called to tell him that his home was on fire. By the time Ron contacted his wife Tracy and they both traveled to the scene, the fire crews were fighting the blaze, which had now fully engulfed their home.
The American Red Cross of Western Wisconsin was alerted by Trempealeau County dispatch as to the Myers family fire. On-call volunteers of the Trempealeau County Disaster Action Team drove out to the Myers fire to meet with the family. Disaster Action Team—or DAT—workers are notified and respond to local disaster events. When the Red Cross is called, DAT workers are notified and respond to the scene. The red Cross provides assistance based on emergency need to victims who are displaced from their homes during a fire or other type of disaster.
Upon reaching the scene, the DAT volunteers met the fire department’s incident commander, and he directed the DAT volunteers to the location where Ron and Tracy were standing. At this time the incident commander made an additional request of the Red Cross—his firefighters were battling the winter temperatures as well as the blaze and he wanted the Red Cross to provide food and beverages to keep the refreshed.
Meanwhile—at the same time the DAT workers were beginning to meet with the Myers family and arranging for hot coffee and sandwiches to provide for the emergency workers—another, unrelated fire was consuming the Wilson home on the other side of the county.
The fire department called the Red Cross office to request assistance for the family of May and Don Wilson. Red Cross staff called to other members of the Trempealeau County volunteer base and identified a team of workers to respond. Although these volunteers were not on-call, they responded without hesitation and applied their training to assess the immediate needs of the Wilson family. This allowed the on-call DAT volunteers to continue to provide assistance to the Myers family and feed the emergency crews helping the Wilson family.
The following morning, the Trempealeau County DAT was at it again. Within 24 hours, the DAT volunteers had responded to three fires, provided emergency help to 13 area residents which included financial assistance for food, glasses, prescription replacement, lodging, clothing and winter coats, and fed 20 emergency workers.