Written by: Stephanie Criner

When 16-year-old Lilah Gross, a high school sophomore, learned about the American Red Cross’ Sound the Alarm event  in her hometown of Raleigh, she felt a strong desire to volunteer even though she had little knowledge about how to install smoke alarms. It was an opportunity to support an organization she has come to deeply respect and to help save lives.

“The Red Cross has been such a helpful organization. I chose the Sound the Alarm event because my sister is an EMT, and I have heard many stories about people in fire disasters. Just knowing that something as small as a fire alarm could save so many people’s lives [made me want to do it],” explained Lilah, who also is a member of her school’s Red Cross club and a volunteer humanitarian mapper.

Lilah’s mother Colleen Gross had slightly different reasons to agree to volunteer for the event when her daughter invited her to come along. “I got to spend a great day with my kiddo and do good work, so it was a win-win,” said Colleen, a small business owner in Raleigh.

As part of the Sound the Alarm event, the mother and daughter received special Red Cross training and then went door-to-door with a team that included other Red Cross volunteers and firefighters. Each team member took on a role for the group. Lilah volunteered to take on the role of educator, speaking to families about fire safety and helping them create fire safety plans, and Colleen took on the role of data collector, documenting the number of homes they visited and the number of smoke alarms they tested and installed. While the mother and daughter were there to teach others, they learned some surprising lessons themselves.

“I learned a bunch of new information about fire safety, like to make sure not to open a window immediately because that will bring fire to you,” said Lilah. Her mother added that they also learned the mailbox or end of the driveway may not be the best family meeting places during a fire because those are the locations where emergency vehicles often arrive.

Lilah was surprised when people older than her did not know some of these and other important Red Cross fire safety lessons. However, she quickly learned not to leave any of the information out, even if she thought something was common knowledge. “I stayed open minded and did not assume they knew [the fire safety information]. You can learn even when you are older,” Lilah said.

Many families also did not realize their smoke alarms – both old ones and recently installed ones – were not reliable. The team replaced all the faulty alarms with new ones and installed additional ones in homes that did not meet current residential codes.

Both mother and daughter felt inspired by their impact as the homeowners listened closely to Lilah’s fire safety lessons and often brought their children to the front door to listen too. One homeowner, who had experienced a fatal house fire, was particularly relieved to have the team inspect her smoke alarms, and a young mother was especially grateful to get help creating a fire safety plan.

Colleen and Lilah obviously benefited from the experience too. “I felt it was a really nice way to spend the day. At the end of it, we felt good about what we did and that we did it together,” said Colleen. “I thought it was really special.”

Lilah agreed. “It gave us a bond, a strong one, being in a new environment doing new things. It showed us that we would want to do Red Cross events again together.”