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VA Volunteer Serves Those who Served Their Country
Carol A. Williams, Special to RedCross.org
Friday, March 10, 2006 — George Risdale has been selected from among American Red Cross volunteers in 147 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers nationwide, as the 2005 Red Cross/Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service Male Volunteer of the Year.
George Risdale (left), who has been named the 2005 American Red Cross/Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service Male Volunteer of the Year, visits with a patient at the Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albany, N.Y.
(Photo Credit: American Red Cross)
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Risdale has been a stalwart of the Red Cross Office at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., for more than 13 years.
“George is the Red Cross office day leader,” writes Karen B. Haas, Volunteer Manager at the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany. “He completes a list of new patients for our Welcome Buddy program. A welcome buddy – and sometimes it is George – then takes afghans, toiletry bags and other donated items to those patients. There are times when a patient requests an item that we do not normally stock or asks a question. George always follows through.”
Every Monday, Risdale takes time to visit patients in the long term care unit who are looking for company and a good listener. He fills in on other days when he is needed. In the past, he also has worked in the ICU waiting room, personal health unit, transplant units and manual arts therapy.
With the assistance the Red Cross of Northeastern New York, Risdale has obtained personal comfort kits to supplement the VA’s Welcome Buddy program. He has trained many Red Cross office volunteers at the center, and also staffed a booth at the Fourth of July Patient Picnic for hospitalized veterans.
“George’s dedication and devotion are second-to-none,” said Williams H. Delia, CEO of the Northeastern New York chapter of the Red Cross. “His willingness to serve the men and women who have served our nation is an outstanding example of personal commitment. No task is too great or too small to warrant George’s personal attention, and he will not rest until the job is done.”
Carol A. Williams is the American Red Cross National Chair, Service to Veterans.
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