Heroes Helping Heroes: Red Cross Volunteers Serving Veterans

Written by Josiah Brownell, Special to RedCross.org

Nov. 8, 2002 — Veterans’ Day is a time of remembrance and appreciation for our nation’s men and women who served in the armed forces. But for the many American Red Cross employees and volunteers serving at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers around the country, the holiday is but one of many days when their thoughts and deeds are geared towards helping our veterans.

Here are just a few of their inspiring stories:

Ruth Ellen Mosely joined the Red Cross in 1950. She has been a Red Cross representative at the local VA Medical Center in northeast Indiana for over 40 years and has spent over 5,000 hours at the hospital organizing parties and talking to the veterans. In appreciation of her efforts, Mosely recently received official dog tags and was made an honorary veteran. “I’ve had a lot of good friends who lift me up whenever I need it,” Mosely said, “so I want to do the same for others.”

Frank Skoman has visited the sick at Ann Arbor, Michigan’s VA Medical Center for over 10 years. Among the services he provides for the hospital, Skoman welcomes incoming patients, introduces them to basic features of the hospital, and distributes quality of life items, such as stationery, stamps, toiletries, books and magazines, to them. He is mostly valued, though, for the intangible benefits he brings to the hospital, such as his listening skills and his conversations. “I feel that it’s self satisfactory to do something . . . for the community,” Skoman said.

During World War II, a teenager named Eleanor Cohen began volunteering her time by knitting scarves and sweaters and giving them to the victims of natural disasters. She also began volunteering through the Red Cross helping veterans. Nearly 60 years later, she is still volunteering. “I enjoyed working as a volunteer and I enjoyed working with veterans, so it was natural that I would volunteer at a VA hospital,” Cohen said. Cohen has since distributed nearly 200 hand-knit lap robes a year and has accumulated over 25,000 volunteer hours at VA hospitals, mostly at the West Side VA Hospital in Chicago. She has even donated the transportation funds she receives from the retired senior volunteer program to buy soap, toothpaste, socks and other items for the patients.

When she first visited the VA Medical Center in North Chicago, Jean Wass certainly did not think she would still be volunteering there two decades later. “At first I thought, ‘this isn’t my bag,”’ Wass remembered, “But the men were so sick and so alone. I could walk away and they couldn’t. That’s what kept me going back.” Since that first fateful visit over 20 years ago, Wass has returned to spend countless hours in the hospital passing out cookies and refreshments, setting up recreational events and simply talking to the veterans. Wass has recently won the Volunteer of the Year award at the Lake County Volunteer Awards ceremony.

Across the country, there are approximately 1,000 regular service volunteers at VA hospitals, 1,000 youth volunteers in the summer, and around 3,000 visits to VA hospitals made by occasional volunteers for special events and projects each year. They all selflessly give their time to the veterans, who themselves have given so much. It is truly an example of heroes helping heroes.