![September 3, 2023. Harira, Georgia.
As manager of the Red Cross emergency shelter in Hahira, Georgia, Sandra Hayes ensures all the residents no matter the age are taken care of, like when Tizealia needed a special hug.
This is Sandra s first deployment as a Red Cross sheltering manager and it s only 30 minutes from her home in Tipton, Georgia. Dedicated to helping people that need help, Sharon is a jack of all trades.
I do sheltering, Disaster Action Team, I also work in the office and I m a Blood Donor Ambassador. I love it. I really do.
I look at it as I m giving back to what I got as a kid. I was affected by a fire when I was 10 or 11 years old. We lost our house. The Red Cross was there. I remember sitting in the back of our car and the Red Cross gave all four of us kids teddy bears.
Tizlealia s mom, Kimberly Williams, credits Sandra for their comfort at the shelter. There s one volunteer that I really connected with. When I took my baby in there because it was cold, Sandra took her socks off and put it on them. She has a special part in my heart and my kids heart.
Hurricane Idalia surprised the Williams family. I didn t have a clue what was happening. My phone wasn t working. I didn t feel safe for my kids. I was worried about my trees falling. That had happened once before because of another storm.
Her home is still without water and electricity, leaving the family s food spoiled. Well, we got food here, we have everything that we need here [at the shelter].
Everybody has been helping each other. When this person might be feeling down, somebody is there to uplift them.
Red Cross volunteers have been helping provide basic first aid and health services for her family. One of Kimberly s boys hurt himself prior to the storm, and a Red Cross nurse helped wrap his foot so his bandages could stay dry in the shower. This is one of the services the Red Cross provides at shelters open across the Southeast for residents displaced by Hurricane](/content/dam/redcross/about-us/news/2023/disaster_year_end.jpg.transform/1288/q70/feature/image.jpeg)
American Red Cross volunteers like Sandra Hayes provided comfort and care to thousands of people whose lives were upended in a record year of large disasters. Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
In a record year of disasters that upended lives across the country, thousands of people answered the call to help through the American Red Cross.
Volunteers — who comprise 90% of the Red Cross workforce — are critical to ensuring families receive care and hope in the face of more frequent and intense disasters. In fact, the annual number of extreme weather and climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each has increased by 80% over the past decade.
Through it all this year, Red Cross volunteers provided shelter, food, emotional support and financial assistance for families in need. During the holiday season, many are on the ground delivering relief in hard-hit places like Hawaii and Florida, where families remain displaced from their homes, or they’re responding to other crises like home fires, which comprise most of the 60,000-plus disasters that the Red Cross responds to annually in the U.S.
Below are some stories sharing how volunteers have made a difference for people reeling from this year’s disasters.
Our 2023 disaster response by the numbers
‘VALUABLE TO OUR COMMUNITY’ When flash floods swamped Jae Basiliere’s home in Johnson, Vermont, the water was so high that a bulldozer needed to lift Jae — along with Jae’s wife, a family friend and three dogs — off the front porch to bring them to safety.
Three weeks after finding refuge in an emergency shelter, Jae was mucking out the home while Red Cross workers assessed community damage to identify further assistance needed beyond initial emergency relief.
“I have seen Red Cross workers on our street, three or four times a day. Many of them know my name, know my story, and address me by name when they see me,” Jae said. “I think it’s been really valuable to our community to have that Red Cross presence here.”
‘RED CROSS HAS BEEN SUCH A BLESSING’ Tornado survivor Monique Bass was at work when the tornado wiped out her home in Amory, Mississippi. For weeks, Monique paid for costly hotel rooms on her own and was worried about how she would continue to make ends meet. She knew that people were getting help but didn’t think she would qualify — until she met with someone from the Red Cross.
In addition to financial assistance, including covering the costs of her previous hotel stay, Red Cross workers helped Monique find temporary shelter in a hotel convenient to her job and located in a safe area. “The Red Cross has been such a blessing! I was struggling, but they helped me,” she said. “I’m safe, I’m fed, and I have met some amazing people. I’m so thankful.”
‘I KEEP CALLING UNTIL I KNOW THE PERSON IS OK’ Red Cross volunteers are in communities everywhere, often living alongside the people they help — and sometimes, this means that they too are coping with disaster losses. That was the case for Joyce Cabildo when a wildfire destroyed her and her husband’s home in Medical Lake, Washington.
A nurse who volunteers with the Red Cross in her free time, Joyce contacts people affected by disasters — such as wildfires like the one she experienced or local home fires — to see if they have medical concerns that need to be addressed. Working with disaster-affected patients and their doctors, this can range from helping to replace destroyed medical equipment to refilling lost prescriptions. “I keep calling until I know the person is OK,” Joyce said.
HOW TO HELP Our lifesaving mission wouldn’t be possible without generous volunteers and donors. This holiday season, turn your compassion into action by donating at redcross.org/gift. A donation of any size makes a difference. You can also register to become a volunteer.
This story is part of a special series on how people responded to emerging needs in 2023 through the American Red Cross. Read our 2023 trends press release to learn more.
HONOR ROLL: ANNUAL DISASTER GIVING PROGRAM AND DISASTER RESPONDER Through the generosity of our American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and Disaster Responder members, the Red Cross is prepared before disaster strikes. ADGP and Disaster Responder members help secure a reliable funding base for disaster relief services that enables the Red Cross to respond immediately, meeting the needs of individuals and families affected by disaster, regardless of cost.
ADGP $1M Members: Amazon; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Bank of America; Best Buy; Caterpillar Foundation; Costco Wholesale ; Delta Air Lines; Elevance Health Foundation; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; Lilly Endowment Inc.; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; McDonald’s Corporation; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; PayPal; PetSmart Charities; The Pfizer Foundation; The Starbucks Foundation; State Farm; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Truist Foundation; VSP Vision; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; Wells Fargo
ADGP $500k Members: Altria Group; American Express; Aon; Bread Financial; Capital One; CarMax; Citi Foundation; The Clorox Company; Danaher Foundation; Darden Foundation; Delta Dental; Dollar General; Edison International; Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation; Ford Motor Company Fund; Fox Corporation; General Motors; Google.org; HCA Healthcare; The Home Depot Foundation; International Paper; The J.M. Smucker Company; Johnson Controls Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; The Kraft Heinz Company Foundation; The Kroger Co. Foundation; Liberty Mutual Insurance; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Mastercard; Merck; Mondelēz International Foundation; New Balance Foundation; PepsiCo Foundation; Salesforce; Southeastern Grocers Gives Foundation & Southeastern Grocers, home of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie; Target; The TJX Companies, Inc; Toyota; United Airlines; UPS; USAA; U.S. Bank Foundation; Visa Foundation; The Walt Disney Company; The Wawa Foundation
Disaster Responder Members: 7-Eleven Cares Foundation; Adobe; The AES Corporation; Ameriprise Financial; Assurant; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Avangrid Foundation Barclays; Big 5 Sporting Goods; Build-A-Bear Foundation; CDW; Charles Schwab Foundation; Choice Hotels International; Cisco Foundation; CNA Insurance; The Coca-Cola Foundation; DHL Supply Chain; The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation; Discover; Duke Energy; Dutch Bros Foundation; Equitable; FirstEnergy Corporation; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation, LLC; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; Keurig Dr Pepper; Kimberly-Clark Corporation; The Labcorp Charitable Foundation; Lenovo Foundation; LHC Group; LKQ; L’Oréal Groupe; Macy’s, Inc.; Major League Baseball; Marathon Petroleum Foundation, Inc.; Martin Marietta; Mattress Firm; McKesson Foundation; MetLife Foundation; The Middleby Corporation; Neiman Marcus Group; NextEra Energy, Inc.; Northrop Grumman; Northwestern Mutual; Old Dominion Freight Line; Organon; Pacific Life Foundation; Prudential; Raymond James; Reckitt; Rodan + Fields Prescription for Change Project, a project of New Venture Fund; Ross Stores Foundation; RTX; Ryder System, Inc.; Santander; Security Finance’s Lending Hand Foundation; ServiceNow; Southwest Airlines; Stanley Black & Decker; Tata Consultancy Services; U-Haul International; Yum! Brands; Zurich
About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.
Support all the urgent humanitarian needs of the American Red Cross.
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