The American Red Cross partnered with the Montgomery County Multi-Faith Coalition to bring faith and community leaders together for an event at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr on April 22, 2026.

Faith Responds: Building Resilient Communities

The theme of the event was “Faith Responds: Building Resilient Communities.”

The common goal? Assembling the tools needed to help people prepare for and recover from a disaster, while helping participants foster lasting connections and cooperation with one another and the Red Cross.

A Fire Never Forgotten

Lynn Cohen is the executive director for the American Red Cross Delaware Valley Chapter. Her home burned when she was just seven years old. The feeling of losing all of her belongings, including beloved toys, stuck with her well into adulthood and contributed to her desire to work for the Red Cross.

Cohen told the crowd that during disasters like home fires, faith communities are often “at the very heart of the response.”

She explained, “You are trusted like the Red Cross. You are present like the Red Cross and long after the headlines fade, you’re still working alongside people as they recover and rebuild, as is the Red Cross.”

A Lifetime of Ministry Leads to the Red Cross

Charline Scott has been in ministry nearly 40 years, and has volunteered for the Red Cross for more than a decade. She started out as a member of the Disaster Action Team (DAT) and is currently a Spiritual Care Lead.

As one of four featured panelists, Scott described her experiences administering spiritual care with the Red Cross.

“Most of the clients that I support are clients that all of a sudden have a home and become homeless. Our goal with disaster spiritual care is – and I’m very sincere about this – to offer hope in a time of hopelessness.”

Scott is an ordained elder with Churches United Through Christ and said she has been a Christian all her life.

Answering God’s Call

Scott said, “It’s that strength, my faith in God that says, ‘He’s called me to do this work.’ He didn’t define what the work was. He just says, ‘Do the work,’ which means you have to be willing to set yourself aside and just do what you’re called to do.”

She emphasized that when she provides spiritual care she’s often ministering to people who don’t go to church, or who have a different faith than she does.

Providing comfort is about meeting people where they are and doing something to support them at their “most challenging time.”

Multi-faith Event Co-Host Moderates Panel

Kayleigh Tizzard is an Intersect project director and multi-faith coordinator for the Montgomery County Multi-Faith Coalition. Intersect is a program offered by Access Services.

Tizzard co-hosted the event and moderated the panel.

Panel of Faith Leaders Talk Comfort & Coping

The panel also featured Akshara Vivekananthan, a program officer at HealthSpark Foundation, Sam Applefield, a Montgomery County food policy and program coordinator, and Reverend John Folk, who pastors Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ in Pottstown.

Reverend Opens His Church to Shelter His Community

Reverend Folk’s church became a Reception Center and shelter for the community after a fire in Pottstown in November 2025. When he got the call about the large fire, Folk was told his own church was burning. It turned out to be a vacant church across the street near neighborhood homes that lost power as a result of the fire.

“I realized pretty quickly that there was a good chance that we were going to need to open our doors,” he said.

Red Cross Response Praised by Pastor

Reverend Folk said when the Pottstown fire happened the Red Cross showed up quickly and “showed up in a way that they were able to organize and mobilize absolutely everything that was needed.”

He said, “It’s a very special blessing to welcome people that are equipped to be able to handle the moment and the Red Cross truly was.”

If you have a space you would like to be used as a Reception Center, contact Katrina Mulherin at katrina.mulherin@redcross.org.

Mulherin is a community disaster program specialist for the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Red Cross.

She described the importance of the faith-based event, which she said came about as an effort between the Red Cross and the Montgomery County Multi-Faith Coalition “to bring resources to the people who are on the front lines, responding to disasters and working in the human services space.”

She said, “We wanted to bring people together to learn more about what one another does so that we can work together and collaborate.”

Volunteers Make a Difference

Volunteers make up 90% of the American Red Cross workforce and events like the one at Church of the Redeemer would not be possible without them.

As part of the Red Cross volunteer community engagement team, Le Roy Whitehead and Valarie Kania greeted guests and then helped volunteer Melanie Boerner feed the group lunch from Wawa. 

Boerner has a special connection to the church. She married there 35 years ago.