“To support all the American Red Cross and its amazing volunteers in action is truly an honor,” said Susan Noyes, Red Cross Illinois Region board member and Tiffany Circle member, after volunteering at the Family Service Center following the tragic 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, IL.
“The Red Cross’ ability to respond to a community in crisis and bring together the right partnerships was amazing and only made me more motivated to do the work that I get to do.”
Susan has been a long-time Red Cross volunteer, beginning as a candy striper at her community hospital when she was 14 years old. Later, she learned water safety and CPR, and eventually became an avid blood donor. “I never really thought about how the Red Cross was the connection point for all those opportunities,” she reflected.
Today, Susan is the founder of the Make It Better Foundation, and her engagement and leadership with the Red Cross has deepened significantly. The Foundation’s mission is to identify and amplify the work of outstanding nonprofits while growing a network of well-informed, committed philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and sponsors.
Susan credits much of her engagement with the Red Cross to the former CEO of the Red Cross of Greater Chicago and her close friend, Fran Edwardson. It was Fran who helped Susan discover the details of her extraordinary connection to the Red Cross and its history. Susan mentioned to Fran that her husband’s family had – at that point – an unknown tie to the organization in its early days. This led Fran to uncover that the ancestors of Susan’s husband, Nick Noyes, were in the inner circle of the founder herself – Clara Barton. In addition, in 1949, the Noyes family donated a home to be used as the Red Cross Chapter House in Danville, New York – the same town in which Clara Barton founded the first Red Cross chapter in the late 1800s. Today, that Chapter House is used as a Red Cross museum and office, and displays a collection of antiques donated by the Noyes family as well as other memorabilia pertaining to the history of the Red Cross.
“As I got involved with the Red Cross, I started realizing how many different ways the Red Cross has touched my life,” Susan said. “It's an organization where the more you learn and the more you do, the more amazed you are by the depth and the breadth and the opportunity.”
Prior to her first board term, Susan witnessed the organization in action on a cold and frigid November evening. She had committed to learn more of what the Red Cross does on a first-hand basis and signed up to serve on the Disaster Action Team, a dedicated group of volunteers who respond to local disasters. On that night, she was called to respond to a serious home fire in Chicago. “Seeing the Red Cross interact with this family that was just devastated, alongside the first responders, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a well-oiled machine.’”
Today, Susan has shared her passion for the American Red Cross with her immediate family, as six members – spanning three generations – have joined the Tiffany Circle. The Tiffany Circle is 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.
“I feel like my donated hours and dollars have the greatest impact by working with the Red Cross and because it does touch so many different areas of need. It feels like a real honor to be able to be part of that.”
