The American Red Cross runs in the family for Missouri-Arkansas region volunteers Patty Patterson and Kaitlyn Kendal — Kaitlyn is Patty’s granddaughter. They just arrived in Guam as part of the Red Cross Typhoon Mawar disaster relief operation.  

Patty and Kaitlyn are both from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri-Arkansas Region, and they’ve worked together during several Red Cross operations. Kaitlyn is a college student, and though she is only twenty years old, she has been a Red Cross volunteer for seven years. Because she is busy during the school year, she spends most of her time as a Red Crosser deploying to disasters during the summer. 

Patty is a Red Cross veteran of many years and stays busy both during gray sky disaster operations and blue-sky work from her home. She arrived in Guam and immediately became part of the disaster assessment team. DA teams are groups of Red Cross volunteers who travel the neighborhoods from house to house determining the damage the structures incurred during the disaster. This data provides a basis for individual assistance, Red Cross funding to help those affected by disaster to begin rebuilding their lives and moving forward. When DA is complete in a few days, Patty will then move to the casework team which takes the data collected by the DA teams and sits down with the local person who suffered damage to determine the best ways the Red Cross can assist, and how the Red Cross can connect them with partner organizations for provide the best possible disaster relief. 

When not deployed to a Red Cross disaster relief operation, Patty is part of the Disaster Workforce Engagement Team. She’s the voice on the phone Red Cross disaster cycle services volunteers hear when they get the call to deploy.  

It’s not every day that a grandmother and her granddaughter work together in the Red Cross, particularly during a major disaster relief operation. 

“Kaitlyn and I really enjoy deploying together,” said Patty. “We make a good team.”