Ordinary Iowans doing extraordinary things were honored during our 2024 Heroes of the Heartland event.

More than 100 Red Cross volunteers installed 316 free smoke alarms in the Taylor and Czech Village neighborhoods of Cedar Rapids as part of a special Sound the Alarm smoke alarm installation event.

Jamie Calhoon, a collections team supervisor for the Red Cross Biomedical Services, was at her home in Minden, Iowa, when a tornado barreled through her neighborhood. Calhoon, her family and her dogs were safe, but their lives changed that night.

After a devastating tornado tore through the small community of Greenfield, Iowa, the Red Cross set up a sheltering location and resource center at a local elementary school.

Randall Hair, a Greenfield, Iowa, resident had just returned home from the hospital when an EF4 tornado barreled through town on May 21. In just a matter of minutes, the tornado destroyed homes throughout the small community, including Hair’s.

Rock Valley resident Apolinar and his grandfather have a house in the middle of Rock Valley. They had to flee that house in the early morning hours after emergency alerts warned people to evacuate because of flooding.

Miranda Curiel of Sioux City, joined by two of her children, Daisy, 5, and Grayson, 8, were thankful for the Red Cross meals provided to her family while they cleaned their home damaged by the floodwaters.

Tom Hildebrand experienced a ruptured aortic aneurysm while on vacation. He suffered life-threatening bleeding, but he is grateful for the donated blood that helped save his life on that fateful day.