By Bethany Bray Patterson, American Red Cross Regional Communications Manager

Volunteering for the Red Cross “fits the time that you have,” says M. Chris Stranahan.

“That’s one of the nice things about it: The flexibility,” she says. “The Red Cross has opportunities where you can volunteer short term, longer term, permanently or for a few hours at a time.”

Stranahan, of Newark, Delaware, has fit volunteering for the Red Cross into her life for 60 years, both while she was working full-time as a teacher and in retirement. She has volunteered with the Red Cross in a variety of ways during her six decades, from teaching first aid to supporting the U.S. military community and their families.

She currently volunteers as a duty officer with the Delmarva chapter of the Red Cross, working shifts to connect callers who have experienced an emergency, such as a home fire, with trained Red Cross disaster workers.

“The thing that I like best about the Red Cross is the teamwork it takes to get the job done,” she says. “And our watchword is flexibility – because things never go exactly as you planned.”

Ninety percent of the American Red Cross workforce is volunteers. The lifesaving work of the Red Cross is made possible by compassionate volunteers like Stranahan who contribute their unique backgrounds, talents and skill levels.

Stranahan first became involved with the American Red Cross for a “selfish” reason, she says, chuckling. She wanted to work at a summer camp on the water and the job required a lifeguarding certification.

That first water safety instructor course that Stranahan took in the early 1960s led her to see the value in teaching water safety to others. She began teaching water safety instructor and lifeguarding courses with the Red Cross, and eventually added first aid, CPR and babysitting instruction.

Stranahan was a health and physical education teacher and saw the importance and value in teaching lifesaving skills to her young students. She began teaching CPR in her classroom when it was a new and lesser-known method.

Stranahan, a Bronx native, first volunteered with the Red Cross in New York but began volunteering with the Delmarva chapter after moving to Delaware in 1965.

After retiring from full-time work in 2003, Stranahan began volunteering with the Red Cross disaster cycle services team and deployed to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She worked at a temporary operations headquarters in a damaged K-Mart, helping connect a network of Red Cross shelters with needed supplies and equipment.

Deploying to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans was one of many “wow” moments Stranahan has experienced during her time as a Red Cross volunteer. “The thing that absolutely amazed me,” she says, “was how the Red Cross was on the ground shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans” -- helping the people who needed it most.

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M. Chris Stranahan will be honored, along with dozens of other compassionate and dedicated volunteers, at one of several volunteer recognition events throughout the Red Cross of the National Capital and Greater Chesapeake region this spring.

In addition to Stranahan, the following volunteers are celebrating milestone anniversaries with the Red Cross:

• Carol Deel of the Central Maryland chapter, 58 years
• Barbara Riester of the Central Maryland chapter, 56 years
• Ann Alexander of the Delmarva chapter, 55 years
• Virginia Cook of the Central Maryland chapter, 55 years
• Joanne Davenport of the Central Maryland chapter, 55 years
• Susan Goekler of the Delmarva chapter, 55 years
• Eric Schlesinger of the Montgomery, Howard and Frederick Counties chapter, 54 years
• Nayna Phillipsen of the Central Maryland chapter, 51 years
• Joseph Prewitt-Diaz of the Loudoun and Prince William Counties chapter, 51 years
• Wendell Baxter of the Central Maryland chapter, 48 years
• Michael Peoples of the Central Maryland chapter, 48 years
• Beverly Scott of the Delmarva chapter, 43 years

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Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Red Cross. 90% of our workforce is volunteers.

Volunteering with the Red Cross can be an opportunity to learn new skills or use ones that you already have, from driving and loading vehicles to checking in blood donors to serving meals or offering spiritual care to people affected by disasters.

Visit redcross.org/volunteer to find out how you can support your community.