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06.16.2011 Chapter honors volunteers at annual meeting
At the Greater Carolinas Chapter annual meeting, staff and volunteers celebrated a year of accomplishments. The theme was “Flower Fun Store,” in honor of a fundraiser that local teacher Irma Boyd has been running for the past 20 years!
Students make and sell paper flowers for $1 each, and all the proceeds go to our local Red Cross. Over the past two decades, the Flower Fun Store has raised more than $22,000! At our annual meeting, we offered these paper flowers to our guests for a small donation. Boy, those flowers sell! Our guests paid nearly $400 total for the beautiful flowers!
The annual meeting celebrates successes from the past year. Among those successes:
- On average, nearly every day, a local family experiences the compassion of our Disaster Action Team volunteers. Already this year, more than 1,000 people with emergency needs for food, clothing, shelter, health and mental health support and recovery guidance, got the help they needed after local disasters – mostly home and apartment fires.
- Emergency preparedness education is one of the most important things we do for our community. To date, nearly 3,500 people have benefited from Red Cross presentations, literature and exhibits.
- This year, we saw a deadly earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Our community overwhelmingly stepped up to help, hosting fundraisers, writing checks and raising awareness for the work the Red Cross continues to do overseas. To date, our chapter has raised nearly $500,000 for Red Cross response to this disaster.
- Then, just a month or so later, tornadoes struck our neighbors in Eastern North Carolina. Our chapter deployed more than a dozen volunteers to help the relief efforts – and we helped raise more than $1.2 million for the response!
- Our Chapter deployed dozens of people to help with floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters this year.
- Being “Red Cross Ready” for emergencies includes Health and Safety training. According to research, two thirds of people will experience some kind of summer emergency, from insect bites, to heat strokes to broken bones or worse. So far this year, more than 25,000 of your neighbors have taken a class in the community or workplace and will know how to save a life with first aid, CPR, use of an AED, lifeguarding, water safety and babysitting.
- The need is constant! The gratification is instant! Our Red Cross Blood Region empowers ordinary people to save lives and feel really good about it! As we speak, your blood donations are helping thousands of people – we collected more than 38,000 units at 1,311 drives this year alone!
- And speaking of life-savers, let’s talk about our support to military families. To date this year, nearly 400 service families have turned to the Red Cross for help with sending emergency messages and getting financial assistance, counseling and referrals.
- We served more than 2,000 clients this year by providing free transportation to and from their critical medical appointments – that’s more than 15,000 trips we provided!
- In terms of fundraising, we saw our community members give generously this year. Notably, Mr. Howard Levine challenged our community to match a $250,000 gift – and match you did! To date, Mr. Levine’s challenge has brought in more than $800,000! We also have an anonymous donor willing to give us $125,000 if we can match it by June 30, the end of our fiscal year. If we match it, we will have raised more than $1 million for our local Red Cross! Board member Ginger Kelly received a round of applause for all the work she did in stewarding these gifts.
“It’s been a life-changing year for the people we serve, and for all of us,” said GCC Board Chair Iris Horton.
Eight volunteers were presented awards for their outstanding work toward helping the Red Cross mission:
Emergency Services Volunteer of the Year
The Emergency Services Volunteer of the Year Award is the highest honor we give to a volunteer in our Emergency Services Department. When you look at the impact she has had nationwide in Disaster Health Services, our winner could be none other than PAM BRYNARSKY.
Pam has been a true leader for the chapter in Emergency Services by coordinating more than 30 Emergency Communications Response Vehicle volunteers with training, monthly inspections and vehicle deployments. Until recently, she was also a Disaster Action Team Captain, and has now taken on the duties of the DAT Chair, while remaining on a team as a lead. For the past 2 years, Pam has worked with staff in coordinating the Charlotte-area Community Disaster Education program.
In addition to her Emergency Services duties, she is also a trained CPR/First Aid instructor, and continues to drive a Transportation vehicle one day each week. Pam has already begun implementing policies and procedures for DAT responses, training, and communications. She attends regular national conference calls regarding the Emergency Communications Response Vehicle, and is an advocate for the chapter to help make volunteering in this area easier for our local vols. She is also a true team player, stepping in to help with anything that she sees happening at the chapter.
Thank-you, PAM!
Transportation Services Volunteer of the Year
FRANK NASH received the Transportation Volunteer of the Year Award for his volunteer work with our transportation program.
Frank is dedicated to helping others and always willing to step up if we are in a jam. He is willing to assist whenever the need is there. He often goes into the office just because he is in the area to look at the schedule to see where the gaps are. He then calls the scheduling office to say “I see ya need a driver. If no one has been assigned, I can take this one, this one and that one.”
Frank has made himself available to be called on early in the morning to cover for someone who has had something come up and needs some help with their clients. His caring attitude helps the clients he transports by lifting their spirits on the way to their medical appointments. Frank is a very positive reflection on the American Red Cross, and we are proud to have him as a volunteer.
HEALTH AND SAFETY VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
Our Health and Safety Volunteer of the Year is WOODY WILLIAMS.
Woody is passionate about the American Red Cross and its mission. He is always willing to go above and beyond to help in any area that needs his help. He is eager to learn new skills and shares his love for the American Red Cross with everyone he comes in contact with. His outreach has positively impacted the goals for our department. We are fortunate to have such a valued volunteer on our Health and Safety team.
Thank you, WOODY!
BIOMEDICAL SERVICES VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
Dr. Corinne Goldberg from the Carolinas Blood Region presented the Biomedical Services Volunteer of the Year Award, which recognizes an individual who works with our blood services. We are proud to present it to BILL THURMAN.
Bill has wonderful people skills and has an excellent rapport with staff, other volunteers and our blood donors. He frequently fills in on short notice for both the Huntersville blood center and at blood drives, usually the unpopular times or locations that no one else will take.
By covering shifts on short notice, Bill ensures that our donors are cared for. Many donors at Huntersville ask for him and come back just to see him.
Thank-you, BILL!
CENTER OF EXPERTISE VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
The CENTER OF EXPERTISE VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR honors a volunteer who works with our finance staff. This year’s award goes to MYRA WHITE.
Myra joined our chapter in the accounting area and took complete duties of accounts payable for the chapter and then stayed on when the Center Of Excellence developed and now processes for 19 chapters .
She has set up all the filing systems and handles a large volume of check requests at a near perfect rate. She dependable, accurate, loyal and responsible. Myra gives 2 days a week to the American Red Cross and she takes her job as a volunteer very seriously. She comes in always with a smile. She is a valuable member of our team.
Thank-you, MYRA!
FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
The deserving winner of this year’s Financial Development Volunteer of the Year is STEVE WISE.
Steve has been critical in helping us maintain an accurate database. Every Wednesday, he goes through the pile of returned envelopes and tenaciously researches various Web sites to get updated addresses for our donors. He then mails these donors the intended message, often a thank you/tax receipt letter. Recently, he has taken on the added responsibility of verifying all of our matching gifts, which is extremely time-consuming.
Steve has improved the Red Cross by fulfilling a vital need with our downsized staff. He has helped us maintain timely contact with our donors, which improves repeat gifts, stewardship and ensures our donors know how much we appreciate and need their help.
Thank-you, STEVE!
GOOD NEIGHBOR AWARD
Our chapter was excited to present our next award, the GOOD NEIGHBOR AWARD. This award is presented to an individual or organization that makes a significant, humanitarian contribution to the community in support of the Red Cross. This year’s recipient is JON WILSON, from Fox News Rising.
Jon will be the first to tell you that he has a deep connection to the Red Cross after our organization helped his family during an emergency. He has shared his passion for the Red Cross countless times on “Wilson’s World,” his segment on Fox News Rising.
Jon has personally reached out to us to do pieces on preparedness, fundraising and finding creative ways to spread our mission. Jon is the type of guy who has fun and can still manage to deliver our message.
Many of you may remember that Jon also hosted our annual fundraiser last year. And if you follow him on Twitter, you’ll see him talk about the Red Cross often. Jon and the team from Fox News Rising are always willing to have the Red Cross on as guests, and for that, we thank you.
Thank you, Jon!
VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
We concluded our program with the Chapter’s highest honor! The Volunteer of the Year Award is presented to an extraordinary volunteer – someone whose contributions to the Red Cross are demonstrated through leadership, initiative, support and service.
This award belongs to JAMES FULLER, who has invested considerable time, energy and talent for 19 YEARS.
JAMES has been coming to the American Red Cross for the past 19 years every Wednesday to provide door-to-door transportation to residents who, without such dedicated volunteers, would have no other means of getting to their medical and/or life sustaining appointments. He is always willing to go the extra mile to assist other drivers who may need assistance with directions or picking up other clients who are not on his schedule. Nineteen years of service not only speaks volumes about this person it also speaks volumes about the service that is being provided. James has said, “It is a great feeling to be in a position to help others, and I will offer my help as long as I am able.” JAMES has driven 51 weeks for 19 years (he does take a week each year for vacation), and that totals more than 960 days with more than 5,800 hours of transporting disadvantaged residents who need us most.
Thank you, James!
Thank you to all our volunteers and supporters, who help make our Red Cross mission possible.