Barbara Atlas is an example of volunteerism. She has been committed to the Red Cross mission since she started as a Disaster Action Team (DAT) member with the National Capital and Greater Chesapeake Region in Washington DC. “For 4 of the 37 years we lived four miles from the White House, I enjoyed responding to fires and other local disasters as a DAT team member,” she said. After they retired, Barbara and her husband moved to Oakland in 2019. She knew she wanted to continue supporting the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross. One of the many ways she jumped back into volunteering locally was by becoming a blood delivery driver for the Bay Area Chapter Blood Services team.
“I get a lot of pleasure from driving a Red Cross van to transport blood, both the pickup of new blood from donor centers and delivering blood as needed to local hospitals. I know that donated blood is saving lives. It is also gratifying to train new drivers for transporting blood and thrilling to see my former trainees on the job. But most important is getting to know the generous people who work in Blood Services helped me learn how,” she said.
Barbara also invests her free time in a variety of other related Red Cross roles that add to her understanding of the region’s Sickle Cell Initiative (SCI). She serves as a Community Outreach, Specialist in Donor Services Recruitment, Blood Donor Ambassador, and Drive Diversity Advocate, as well as contributing to the Inclusion, Belonging, Equity, Access (IBEA) taskforce.
In her role supporting the SCI for the Northern California Coastal Region, she says: “As a former computer systems designer, I have been pleased to be able to use that skill set to contribute to the regional startup of the SCI. Attending open mic calls helped me learn how other Red Cross regions increased their recruitment of African American donors, whose blood could benefit be a perfect match for sickle cell patients. I’ve applied that knowledge to support our regional donor recruitment efforts for helping people with sickle cell disease.”
For exemplifying the humanitarian spirit of volunteerism, Barbara was recently honored with the Regional Volunteer of the Year Award. This is the highest honor a volunteer can achieve at the Chapter level for their meaningful and significant contributions to the Red Cross mission over the last calendar year. “This award offers opportunities to publicly thank the generous and knowledgeable people who recruited, trained, and befriended me: volunteers such as Patty Montmorency and Ebony Jean Daniels and Blood Services employees Rhonda Davis, Elysse Turney, and Joanna Liao,” she said.
In Barbara’s experience, volunteering with the Red Cross can be both rewarding and enjoyable: “The American Red Cross offers so many opportunities to help those who ask for it. You can combine your volunteer activities with full-time work and will meet lots of generous people. You will find your best self as a Red Cross volunteer.”
The Red Cross is always looking for people like Barbara, who’d like to be a helping hand to their communities in times of need. Visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to learn more and get involved.
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