This Holiday Season the Greatest Gift is You — Volunteer Today

The holiday season is a time for festivities and family. It’s also a time for giving. This year, Give the Gift of Time and help people through some of life’s toughest moments. Resolve to help others by becoming an American Red Cross volunteer.

The need for volunteers remains critical and constant. There are many different ways to volunteer. Below are a few positions we really need your help to fill:

• Blood Donor Ambassadors: Volunteers in this role engage with blood donors at blood drives by greeting, registering, answering questions, providing information and supporting them through the recovery process at the refreshments table.
• Transportation Specialists: There is a high need for volunteer transportation specialists who deliver blood from our facilities to local hospitals. If you have a little free time, love driving, and enjoy meeting new people, the Red Cross has a great volunteer spot waiting for you.
• Disaster Action Team Member: Our Disaster Action Team volunteers respond day and night to meet the immediate needs of their neighbors after an emergency. Support may include financial assistance for food, clothing and lodging, emotional support, replacing prescription medications and other critically needed items.
• Shelter Services: Support the day-to-day activities within an emergency shelter by helping with reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information or other areas within a shelter. Free online training will be provided.

• Disaster Health Services: These valuable volunteers use their professional skills as licensed healthcare providers to deliver hands-on care to people in shelters. There is also a need for Mental Health Services volunteers.
• Service to the Armed Forces Clinic Volunteer help enhance the morale of patients by providing direct and indirect assistance to patient care activities in military treatment clinics.
   

Red Cross volunteers are the true backbone of the Red Cross, making up more than 90% of our workforce. Life’s emergencies don’t stop and neither do the almost 300,000 individuals who volunteer their time to support the mission of the Red Cross. They help staff blood drives, volunteer at veterans’ hospitals, teach people lifesaving skills such as First Aid and CPR, respond to disasters and so much more.

Volunteers enable the Red Cross to respond to an average of more than 60,000 disasters every year. They help train more than 4.6 million people in Red Cross lifesaving skills; help provide nearly 550,000 services to military members, veterans and their families; and to reconnect almost 9,000 families separated by war or disaster around the world. In addition, as many as 2.5 million volunteer donors give blood and platelets every year.

Training is free, but the hope you provide as a Red Cross volunteer is priceless. Visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to get started today.