By: Susan Gallagher, American Red Cross

It was the sirens that got her attention, though all was calm in her part of town.

American Red Cross volunteer Pam Protzman and her husband Dirk woke to an emergency signal bleeping from their television. A veteran fire fighter, Dirk turned on a scanner and heard the call for all firemen to report to duty. He left for duty, and Pam headed for the Jefferson City and the Red Cross Central and Northern Missouri Chapter headquarters.

There on that night in May 2019, she learned that an EF-3 tornado had hit Jefferson City. This “wedge” tornado — wider in its funnel than it was tall — moved at 40 miles an hour, shooting debris 13,000 feet into the air. It ripped the roofs off several businesses, blew out windows, and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes. In the next few days, the Red Cross provided more than 1,000 overnight shelter stays, over nine thousand meals and hundreds of personal care kits and other emergency supplies.

That night, Pam joined a group of three other dedicated volunteers to begin the work of providing shelter, offering resources and assessing damages.   The retired nurse of many years, mother of three and grandmother of three quickly enlisted her son to tow a Red Cross tailer filled with shelter supplies to the Thomas Jefferson Middle School shelter site. Then she swung into action finding out what resources were available for survivors. 

Pam was soon called to the city’s Emergency Operation Center, where she served survivors for 36 hours straight in the first days of disaster.

“We believe that the Red Cross must deliver the help survivors need when they are at the lowest point of their lives,” said this veteran of 16 years as a Red Cross volunteer. ““That is what the Red Cross is all about.”

Aiding others has been Pam’s guiding force almost all of her adult life. She started working at a nursing home at age 16 and then, after completing nursing school, served for 15 years in nursing homes. Later she worked for more than 14 years in the office of a family physician and then launched her own business providing private care in homes.

At the Red Cross, Pam has volunteered in disaster response services, helping dozens of fire victims. She has installed smoke alarms, offered safety education to children and taught first aid classes, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Pam has also been a Red Cross ambassador, meeting with officials and organizations in many of the 27 central Missouri counties her chapter covers.

She comes from generations of committed community leaders who lived in the northern Missouri town of Greentop, population 351 and 40 minutes from the Iowa state line. Pam and her family moved to Jefferson City in the 1980s for work, and since then, between her long nursing career and her volunteer work, she rarely goes anywhere without being recognized.  

“I was shopping the other day when a young woman called out to me telling me she was homeless again,” Pam recalled. “The tornado had destroyed her house so she moved to an apartment, where a fire broke out. Now she needs a place to live. In the middle of Walmart, I counseled her on what to do to find another place to live.”