Shayra Rosario joined the Red Cross as an employee in January of 2019, and it wasn’t long before she recruited her dad, Marco Rosario, as a volunteer. “I started telling my dad about the different opportunities that volunteers had, and since he’s retired, he started looking at some of those options.” She knew his past career experience and role in the military would be a good fit. He signed up in 2020 and began training as a disaster workforce member and community volunteer leader. 

In October, the dad-daughter duo had their first opportunity to deploy together as Red Cross disaster relief workers. Their assignment: supporting Red Cross operations along Gulf Coast in advance of Hurricane Delta, the 25th named storm of record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. 

As they headed out, Marco, an Army veteran, said, “For me, I’m retired, it’s my time to give back. I’m excited to go there. I think we are able to make a difference, to give them a good helping hand.”

They arrived first in Alabama, then on to Mississippi and ultimately Louisiana where the storm made landfall – only six weeks after Hurricane Laura devastated the same area. They worked tirelessly for two weeks with other Red Cross volunteers from across the country to deliver aid to the hardest hit areas.  Every morning they met at a warehouse to load rental trucks with pallets of water and heater meals, hundreds of clean-up kits, and other emergency relief supplies, and drove an average of 1.5 hours each way to distribution sites.

“While assisting families in Louisiana in a heavily affected area after back-to-back hurricanes, a man asked why we (my daughter and I) had come all the way from Tampa to help,” said Marco. “I told the man that we were blessed and fortunate to answer the call to volunteer and that it could be us (in Tampa) needing assistance in the future. We both nodded.” 

In addition to working side-by-side with her dad and other Red Crossers, Shayra encountered many kind, selfless people along the way – all working to help those in need. “On several occasions, I was touched by the way people looked out for each other,” she explained. “While visiting residents and delivering supplies in the affected areas, people were so quick to say, ‘we are fine, go check on this neighborhood in greater need of assistance.’ This touched my heart.” 

For all the extraordinary challenges of 2020, moments like these continue to serve as proof of what we can accomplish when we come together to help our neighbors in need.

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