Red Cross holds volunteer drive for local disasters
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WORLAND – Red Cross Disaster Program Director Cindi Shank of Gillette held a volunteer open house on Tuesday, hosted by Washakie County Emergency Management. The goal was to add to the ranks of Red Cross volunteers locally, and across the state for emergency situations.
“Red Cross volunteers are not only active during disasters,” explained Shank. “We rely on the principals of Prepare, Respond and Recover, so it’s important that we have volunteers to work with groups to make sure the community is prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster.”
With only three full-time Red Cross managers in the state, and only one current volunteer in Washakie County, Shank stresses the need for more people to become involved, if even for donation management.
“After the flooding [in February] for instance, people immediately started showing up with items to donate to affected families, and we had no one to organize the things and make sure they got distributed fairly,” said Shank. “Whenever an event like this happens, people start grabbing items for donation, and we really have no protocol to receive it. We need that locally.”
With a coverage area from South Dakota to Yellowstone National Park, Shank relies on volunteers to keep communities prepared and respond to emergency situations, but always needs more.
“It doesn’t have to be an individual volunteer either,” said Shank. “We rely on groups as well. Church and civic groups can also volunteer.” Shank noted that the LDS church in Big Horn County is a sheltering volunteer in case of a disaster, and churches usually make good volunteers due to their already in-place facilities and membership.
“There is so much to do to prepare a community, including donation management, food storage, sheltering … most of the time people only think to volunteer after the boom,” said Shank
Currently, the Red Cross keeps an emergency trailer at the county emergency management office, and works regularly with the Local Emergency Planning Committee to plan for disaster mitigation.
“We need to focus on sheltering and feeding ahead of time,” said Shank. “We strongly encourage volunteers to step forward, especially in the smaller communities.”
Potential Red Cross volunteers are encouraged to contact Cindi Shank at 307-689-0886.
No medical or emergency experience is needed to volunteer.
