by Martin Gagliano

Hans Cardenas is a man on a mission: he aims to make 100 homes safer by installing free smoke alarms with the American Red Cross Sound the Alarm program. And he is more than halfway there already!

Sound the Alarm is part of the national Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, which aims to reduce the number of deaths from home fires. This campaign has helped save 2,063 lives since its launch in October 2014. Here in the Northern California Coastal Region, volunteers and partners have installed more than 48,500 free smoke alarms and made more than 18,000 households safer since 2014.

“I’ve made 57 homes safer since I started on May 14, 2020. Working with different teams, we installed 171 alarms,” he detailed.

Hans’ journey with the Red Cross started in 2020 as a Senior Philanthropy Officer with the Regional Fund Development Team. He spent two years facilitating financial donations from individuals across the Northern California Coastal Region. Through his role, he forged connections with donors, aligning their priorities with the Red Cross mission, which includes disaster relief, blood donation and community support. As of December 2023, he transitioned to a similar position with the San Francisco Opera. Despite his busy schedule, he still finds time to install free smoke alarms with his fellow Red Crossers, visiting communities at risk for home fires across the region. “We, the fundraisers, are very goal oriented. I was just being audacious by choosing such (a) number, but also trying to stay engaged with something I really enjoy doing,” he explained.

His inspiration to serve comes from his peers, dedicated staff members and volunteers. “They were the ones that encouraged me to do it,” he remembers. “Once I became a volunteer, I met other Red Crossers and went to monthly meetings. Engaging with them keeps me going. Thanks to them, I am eager to continue. And I still want to be like them and do amazing things like they do,” he said.

Hans family values and heritage are present in his volunteer work. He and his brother are from a blended Mexican American family; his mom is from the U.S. and his dad is from Mexico. Hans was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and came to California when he was 5 years old. He is bilingual in English and Spanish, a skill that he often applies to his role as educator with Sound the Alarm teams.

“Many of the homes that I’ve visited were Spanish-speaking households. In some cases, they only spoke Spanish. I’m really glad to help them understand the safety information and translate materials for them,” he remembers proudly.

His passion for Sound the Alarm grew while he was working in the regional Fund Development team. As part of his duties, he became a subject matter expert for the Home Fire Campaign and Sound the Alarm.

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the volunteer work in the field, Hans had to wait almost a year to finally attend his first smoke alarm installation event, but the wait was worth it.

“Nothing prepared me for what I experienced,” he said about his first installation event. “No matter how much you’ve read about the campaign, it is quite an experience. It’s early Saturday morning and you come together with other volunteers, you have coffee and donuts, meet other fellow volunteers like you, and some of them are also newbies. You do training and then get assigned a team, and together you go home to home helping  residents. And they’re so welcoming and so gracious, they have just a lot of gratitude for us. You just walk away that day feeling like, ‘wow, I just made five homes safer.’ If there is a fire -hopefully there is not- they are going to be prepared. They’ll have working smoke alarms and  they’ll know immediately how to get out safely. It feels good. And it’s not so much about my feelings, but that larger sense of community. It feels like you’re making a big impact and it’s only one morning. It’s a blip on the rest of my life, but it makes a big impact on those families.”

Local residents who need a smoke alarm can visit SoundTheAlarm.org/NCCR to schedule an appointment for a free smoke alarm installation at any time, year-round.

With his volunteer work and commitment to the Red Cross mission, Hans is showing us all what it means to truly care about our communities. We are proud to work beside him toward his goal, making one home safer at a time.