By Nancy Aziz, American Red Cross Volunteer
 

Joe Gutierrez knew early on that he loved to write.

“I discovered writing when I was seven years old.  I came up with basically a tiny little newspaper. I wouldn't even call it that; it was just a typewritten sheet of a paragraph of stuff happening in the house, and I would write it and give it to my family, and they said thanks, and on I went,” said Joe. While he can’t remember the particular stories, Joe joked they were probably about little things, something like the dog eating his dad’s shoes.

Joe’s family newspaper project would eventually lead him to a career in news and public affairs. He worked for the San Bernardino Sun covering crime, disasters, and local politics. During that time, he met his wife while covering a plane crash. She worked at a rival newspaper. He later worked as a reporter at the Press Enterprise before becoming a public affairs officer for Cal State San Bernadino.

Now, Joe lends his writing talents to the American Red Cross, where he volunteers for the Southern California Region’s communications team, as well as for other assignments. You’ve probably read his Volunteer of the Month profiles. The profiles are the perfect fit for a writer whose favorite stories have always been about people.

“When you get a person to talk about what they do, and they love it, they give you great stuff. I mean, a lot of times it ends up, they end up, writing their own story. I'm just listening, writing stuff down.”

But of course, there’s a lot more involved! Joe makes sure the people he interviews feel comfortable, so they open up and share their stories.

“So, I call, introduce myself, congratulate them on what they did, and basically tell a little about myself, and I want to do their story, and what the story entails,” he said. He also sends a list of questions and copies of previous stories. “I think what helps is that I'm not just an outsider. I am a Red Cross volunteer they can trust,” he said.

“I hear him making these calls and spending a great deal of time to connect with the people that he’s writing about,” said Joe’s wife Kim Lane, who is also a Red Cross volunteer. “He responds well to people, he’s able to pull information out of them, and he’s just a good guy, so all those things combined mean that he has a real talent for it.”

Joe says one of the things he loves most about writing profiles on Red Cross volunteers is that he gets to hear why people joined the organization. As for Joe, his “why” was Kim, who volunteers in multiple positions for the Red Cross. He’d see how much she enjoyed helping others, and once he retired, Joe decided to volunteer too. That was a little over two years ago. Besides writing for the communications team, he contributes his time and talents to various other roles at the Red Cross. He helps out in large-scale disasters where he works in shelters, and in everyday disasters, like home fires, where he works with a Disaster Action Team showing up, oftentimes in the middle of the night, to help a family who has just lost a home.  In that role, Joe offers emotional support, helps people with immediate needs like food, and helps connect them with the resources they’ll need to recover.

“So, it's to me, it's a worthwhile endeavor. And you just see that look, the look that people give you when you give them help, is just like amazing,” Joe said.

He went on to share one of his favorite examples of the gratitude volunteers receive when they help people in need.  Joe said a family who had just lost their home in a house fire bought coffee for all the firefighters and Red Cross volunteers who arrived to help. “And so, you know, we gave them assistance, we helped them out, but I left there thinking, like to go through all this mess, you're gonna have to find a new place to live, and then you have time to think of others by doing that. Yeah, that makes it worthwhile.”

Another thing Joe loves about volunteering with the Red Cross is that for him, it’s a family affair. Joe, Kim, and their daughter all volunteer. Sometimes they end up on calls together.

“It's good. I mean, I get to spend time, we're helping folks through the Red Cross, but I get to spend more time with my wife or my daughter or both, and we're doing something that makes a difference,” he said.