075 Lee Johnson—The American Red Cross
Never Resting, Always Ready—The Red Cross
When the weather forecast shows the beginning of a hurricane, the whole nation waits. Except the Red Cross. Everyone there is in high gear, preparing. Shelters to line up, food to arrange for, supplies to transport. Relief teams, mental health workers, technology whizzes—volunteers are readying to go, to be the first on the scene—and the last to leave.
Lee Johnson, who retired from his role as general manager of a large regional transit district, leads the Disaster Assessment Team, first in to provide crucial data to the Red Cross system to enable the organization to scale up (or down) to match the need.
Additionally, for Hurricane Harvey Lee headed up the technology team, using satellite to re-establish the communication systems that are so critical for coordinating the efforts of the Red Cross volunteers. Deployed teams usually commit for a two-week period and are then relieved by other Red Cross volunteers as needs change.
Unlike hurricanes, most disasters strike suddenly. Some encompass a wide area and many people. Some, like a house fire, are localized but just as devastating to the family and their friends. So the Red Cross never rests, never stops preparing.
In the in-between times, Lee checks the fleet of Red Cross vehicles to make sure they are all ready to go. He also instructs training courses for volunteers.
With so much to do to help people and communities in their times of greatest need, volunteers can readily find their niche, one that suits their skills, interests, and time available. Volunteers also feel the support of the organization through effective training, team-building social events, and being in action with other seasoned team members. Volunteers serve where and how long they can. Every volunteer is valued.
In turn, Lee values the Red Cross. He's seen it in action; he's been in the action, making a difference. He says, "I worked to live. Now I live to serve." And at the Red Cross, he finds people like himself who also live to serve.
For more about volunteer opportunities at the Red Cross chapter in your area, simply search on Red Cross.
073 Michelle Colee–Be Your Haven
No One Dies Alone, Thanks to Volunteers—Be Your Haven
The diagnosis is terminal. Efforts switch from cure to comfort. It's time for hospice care. Often in the initial conversations with hospice staff, new patients will express their fears. Not wanting to die alone is a one of their biggest concerns.
Be Your Haven, a hospice-care provider in 18 counties of Florida, has set up a program as part of their services called, No One Dies Alone, to provide volunteers to be with patients 24/7 during their last five to ten days. Volunteers may simply be a quiet presence, hold the patient's hand, read aloud, sing softly, or speak reassuring words from time to time as they stay for their four-hour vigil. Volunteers don't have to worry that they are doing the "right" thing to comfort the patient because during those initial meetings, staff has asked patients what they would desire and find soothing.
Michelle Colee, the volunteer coordinator, also provides volunteers with both training and support. Volunteers have a mentor to be with them for their first few times until they indicate they are ready to be on their own with patients. Most of the volunteers in the Florida program are between 60 and 90 years old, bringing with them a lifetime of understanding and practicing compassion. They return again and again, telling Michelle that they feel they are blessed by the experience.
Other volunteers bring their computer and organizational skills, assisting with the record keeping. Some go out into the community to speak to groups, helping them understand the role of hospice care and the importance of planning related to end-of-life issues. Still other volunteers work in the Haven Attic Stores, taking in donations and reselling them to raise funds for Be Your Haven's services.
"When health becomes a challenge, we will be your haven" is the message of the organization, but it comes alive through caring volunteers whose only "pay" is the blessing they receive. For more about Be Your Haven or the No One Dies Alone program, visit beyourhaven.org. Search the internet for hospice organizations in your local area.
072 Bruce Kerber—Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Digging Into the Past, Creating the Future—Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
After 38 years of helping people grow through his career as a clinical social worker, Bruce Kerber wanted something different in retirement. He found his niche by looking to his past.
Bruce remembered playing on his Uncle Tony's farm as a child. During his college years Bruce had worked for his dad in the family's nursery business. He also did some research projects as part of his university curriculum. Throughout his professional life, Bruce enjoyed his own gardens and especially his orchid collection.
Looking to his past directed him to his future—right back to his Uncle Tony's farm, which had been purchased by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Now, as a volunteer with the Arboretum, Bruce assists with the research needed for returning the previously cleared and cultivated farm to its natural state of prairie and forest. One of the issues under study is how to deal with the imported—and invasive—European buckthorn tree that chokes out native plants.
As a part of his volunteer contribution, Bruce plants native shrubs and monitors their growth, gathering necessary data for the project. In addition to that work, he donated a large portion of his extensive orchid collection to the Arboretum and volunteers one morning a week there to assist in the care of "his plants" and the rest of the collection.
Getting out to do the heavy work of planting and tramping through the farm to monitor the progress of the new plants has been good for Bruce too. He credits his volunteer work with challenging him to keep up physically.
He's looking forward to the near future when Uncle Tony's farm—restored to its native splendor—will be open to the public to enjoy. When that happens, Bruce will see not only the Arboretum's goal come to fruition but also the fruits of his own life-long love of helping people and plants grow to their full potential.
071 Kim Carrier—People and Pets Together
Not Just Another Mouth to Feed—People and Pets Together
Have you ever been sick or emotionally down and had your pet climb up next to you, loving you completely and easing your distress? Kim Carrier attributes that unconditional love from her two dogs with helping her heal. They were her "saving grace" in very difficult time.
Kim also recognized that others were not so fortunate. Job loss and medical crises, especially, can so easily push a family to the brink financially. In desperate times too many people feel they have no option but to give up their pets in order to feed their family. Yet living with pets can have such positive effects in times of instability. Especially for children, their animals provide emotional support and actual health benefits.
In 2009, in the midst of the adversity of the Great Recession, Kim founded People and Pets Together (PPT) to give families an alternative to having to surrender their pets. Through both the organization's own pet food "shelf" and the dedicated pet food shelves in partner pantries that provide food for people, nearly 8,000 pounds of pet food each month enables families to keep their pets. The program serves two very large, low-income neighborhoods in the Minneapolis area.
Volunteers—130 of them—plus donors, make the preventions possible. Some volunteers pick up the pet-food donations from bins placed in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul communities and from businesses that contribute and take them to the various distribution sites. Other volunteers, working at the PPT site, assist the guest shoppers in ways that maintain their dignity as well as fulfill the need. Veterinarian students from the University of Minnesota volunteer their time to run regular, subsidized vaccination clinics, which are also sponsored by PPT. Volunteer retention is high—people and pets do go together!
As someone immersed in this issue, Kim sees this model of helping families keep their pets as more cost effective to communities than building, staffing, and maintaining animal shelters. Families who lose a beloved pet to a rescue or shelter lose much more than just another mouth to feed.
Kim admits she had struggled in the past with the question of who deserves help. However, she came to the conviction that the answer is everybody. Everybody deserves love—love of a pet and love from volunteers committed to keeping people and pets together. In that knowledge and in her action Kim finds joy!
For more information, visit peopleandpetstogether.org or view their Facebook page.
Local food pantries are often prohibited by charter from spending any funds to supply pet food, but many would be willing to accept donations and stock a shelf within their pantry. Consider talking with food pantries in your area about the possibility.