By Kim Mailes, American Red Cross

“I feel motivated to change the world in my own small way,” said American Red Cross volunteer Sherri Odell. “Whatever project I’m working on that day for the Red Cross — it may be something small — I know it all adds up.”

Sherri serves on the board of directors for the Greater Kansas City and Northwest Missouri Red Cross chapter and is a vital participant in the National Council of the Tiffany Circle. Over the years she has fulfilled disaster response roles ranging from Disaster Action Team member assisting those affected by home fires, driving Emergency Response Vehicles to deliver meals to victims of disaster, managing shelters with hundreds of residents, and procuring much-needed supplies to assist those in need.

Her Red Cross volunteer career began in 2005 during the Hurricane Katrina disaster response. Seeing the Red Cross and organizations like the Humane Society in action, she knew she had to do something.

“I remember asking my husband for advice, and he said, ‘If you volunteer with the Humane Society, you’ll bring back all the orphaned animals. If you join the Red Cross, you’ll go down and love on the people — but you won’t bring them all back home with you!’”

“That was it,” Sherri laughs, “I signed up with the Red Cross, and the rest is history.”

Over the past eighteen years, Sherri has deployed to disaster relief operations in almost every corner of the United States, but her three-week deployment after the Joplin, Missouri, tornado disaster sticks out in her mind.

“It was devastating, with multiple fatalities. That one was extremely tough, both physically and emotionally. It didn’t help that on my way there I received a call that my younger sister had been diagnosed with cancer. I truly believe that by focusing my energies on helping the people of Joplin recover helped me process what my sister was facing — and it became a healing process, not only for the victims of the tornado, but for me as well. I met some of the most amazing people and it taught me how to stay tough when you feel like giving up.”

These days, Sherri finds tremendous satisfaction working with the Tiffany Circle, a community of women leaders who advance the American Red Cross mission through a focused investment of time, talent and treasure by engaging and embracing women locally, nationally and internationally. Since its founding in 2007, Tiffany Circle members have raised more than $230 million to support vital services in communities across the country and around the world.

Named for the Tiffany windows at the Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., the organization continues the legacy of women’s influence on the history of the Red Cross. Women have served in leadership roles since Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881, and today scores of women in chapters across the country and around the world are engaged in the program through mission delivery and outreach to draw in new members. Sherri first joined her local Tiffany Circle chapter, and was recently named to the national council.

“I assist with planning quarterly calls with Tiffany Circle leaders across the country, providing guidance to successfully manage their own chapters. I love managing our ‘Spotlight’ articles which highlight Tiffany Circle members across the country.”

For the past few years, Sherri has deployed virtually to disaster relief operations as part of the communications and public affairs team. As a public affairs manager, I can attest to how important her work is to making our efforts successful. Based at her home in Kansas City, hundreds of miles from where I’m working, she publishes our stories and photos on webpages and social media, telling our stories to people needing help and those who support our mission.

“By providing critical information such as shelter locations, evacuation information, or wildfire safety tips, I hoped that I was making a difference,” she said. “Then one afternoon, I came across a question on social media from a family who posted, ‘We had to evacuate our home very quickly, but we have no idea where to go.’”

Sherri provided them with the location of the nearest Red Cross shelter, and a bit later they responded, “Thank you Red Cross, a hot shower never felt so good!”

“Knowing that I helped someone, although hundreds of miles away, felt really good.”

Sherri plans to continue volunteering with the Red Cross “as long as they’ll have me, as long as I feel like my efforts are helping others and making a difference. I realize that the needs within our communities and country will always be there — whether it’s for blood, or recovery after a disaster, or training before a disaster hits, the need for volunteers will always be there. The Red Cross has helped me live with purpose. I cannot imagine living any other way.”

If you’d like to become a Red Cross volunteer and devote your life to serving others, find more information here: https://www.redcross.org/volunteer/become-a-volunteer.html

If you’d like to know more about the Tiffany Circle, find more information here: https://www.redcross.org/tiffany-circle.html