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What is a Red Cross Volunteer's Time Worth?
Written by
Lesly C. Simmons
, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 — What is a volunteers time worth? It’s not just their willingness to work for no pay, their desire to perform a humanitarian service simply for the benefit of others. It’s something intangible and invaluable.
For the American Red Cross, and for thousands of other charities large and small, this concept is all-powerful. When the Red Cross needed to recruit thousands of volunteers after Hurricane Katrina, it was a hard job and an easy one at the same time. The Red Cross had to reach them, but so many people already had the commitment in their hearts that getting them to act on it was the easy part.
In the more than two years that I’ve worked for RedCross.org, I’ve traveled to dozens of disaster scenes and met volunteers at each of them. And I’ve learned something from each of them, most importantly that it doesn’t take much to be a huge benefit to someone else. Americans respond when neighbors are in need, from a hurricane in Florida to a house fire in the same community.
The author, Lesly Simmons, delivering dinner to Randolf Ford of Daytona Beach, Fla., after Hurricane Frances.
(Photo credit: Gene Dailey/American Red Cross) |
In the days after Katrina, thousands of volunteers flooded Red Cross chapters around the country, sent emails, made phone calls and just showed up to find out how they could help.
What struck me most was that many of the volunteers I interviewed – rookies and veterans alike – started their current assignment just after Katrina, and had been on the scene providing services for MONTHS. Given the chance to work their three-week stint and go home, many people decided to stay or returned again and again, and the most common reason I heard from each of them was the feeling they got from helping. The smiles, hugs and kind words from the people they worked with far outweighed any pay they could have received.
I know exactly what that feeling is like. During some disasters, I’ve spent as much time fixing dinners in the back of an emergency response vehicle (ERV) as I did writing stories. As much as I love my job, there’s just no comparison to seeing people with tears in their eyes as I walk up with some food or water.
While the number of large scale disasters in recent years has made Red Cross volunteers more visible, there are still thousands of people who volunteer in their own communities every day. As tornadoes strike around the country, most of the Red Cross volunteers on the scene are people who live in those communities. I’ve met people working as volunteers who lost everything in the disaster; they say it takes their mind off their own problems to help someone else. More than six months after Katrina, volunteers are still working every day with smiles on their faces.
If you’ve thought about volunteering with the Red Cross or any other charitable organization, remember there are lots of ways you can help. The opportunity to serve is not just limited to major events. The Red Cross responds to disasters large and small across the country every day, and its hometown volunteers that make that possible also. From doing the heavy lifting of setting up a shelter, to taking quiet time to read to a child living in one, we can all play a part. You can do yours by starting today at your local Red Cross chapter.
The American Red Cross helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Last year, almost a million volunteers and 35,000 employees helped victims of almost 75,000 disasters; taught lifesaving skills to millions; and helped U.S. service members separated from their families stay connected. Almost 4 million people gave blood through the Red Cross, the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The American Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.
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