Military Appreciation Month: Local Red Crosser bringing a piece of home to servicemembers overseas
The mission of the American Red Cross was born on thebattlefield, with founder Clara Barton providing support to soldiers on CivilWar battlefields. More than 140 years later, it’s a mission that the Red Crossproudly carries to this day through Service to the Armed Forces. The focus ofthat mission is to support military members, veterans and their familiesthroughout all stages of their military career.
From helping to connect families with servicemembers during life’semergencies through the Hero Care Network, to building care kits and connectingveterans and military families with critical resources here at home and providingsupport to veterans at our nation’s VA hospitals, the Red Cross is there. RedCrossers like Darla Roote are also stationed across the globe to help supportU.S. servicemembers to bring help and hope (and a little bit of home) to those menand women stationed overseas.
As a Service to the Armed Forces Program Specialist for theWestern New York region who retired in 2022 with 40 years of military service,Darla is currently on a six-month deployment helping to support U.S. military members stationed in Poland. Darla left in February for Poland to help bring a piece ofhome to nearly 1,200 men and women living on three U.S. military bases inPoland. This Military Appreciation Month, Darla gave an update on some of theconnections she’s made so far, activities she has planned to help bring some levityto our troops and what she’s learned along the way.
Given your military experience, was there an adjustmentperiod for you and how has your deployment gone so far?
The trip over was good. I made it and stepped right into it!My predecessor did a really good job with what she had and was building it up.Now, I’m building a space for one base, and I’ve almost got a space for another.That one really needs something as the only thing that have is an MWR (Morale,Welfare & Recreation) and it’s also a tent base. At the moment, I don’thave transportation. I did all the training for the driver’s license and rightnow we’re working on an MOU with the USO because they have a Jeep, so I can usethat to get between the three bases. It can be hard to get to some of thoseoutlying areas.
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