COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The American Red Cross Heart of Texas chapter wants you to get to know them a little bit better. The organization is hosting a virtual event three times this week to answer all your questions.
““I really want people who are interested to get to know some of our other volunteers, get to know our staff, who is over 90 percent of the Red Cross workforce is volunteers, so if we can just explain to people what different roles we have between the preparedness response and then the recovery aspect, then we can just be that much more prepared when hurricane season or another disaster does strike," said American Red Cross volunteer, Sara Jo Poremski.
Summertime is not exempt from disasters the red cross wants to be prepared for all circumstances.
“As we approach the weather season, we need more and more volunteers who are prepared, training them to go and right now we’re trying to recruit volunteers who can respond to disasters but also help to prepare and educate the community for how to prepare. So we can hopefully avoid the devastation of a home loss or a life loss," said American Red Cross Heart of Texas chapter executive director, AJ Renold.
The coronavirus has moved many parts of training for the American Red Cross to online courses. After those are completed, there will be in-person sessions to go out with an experienced volunteer for half a year.
“We’ll never put you in a situation when you’re not ready for it, so when disasters happen, we are responding somewhat virtually, but should we have to go in person, we are providing the PPE for our volunteers but we also, it’s part of the training process that you follow along, do ride-a-longs with experienced volunteers so that’s an opportunity for on the job training," said Renold.
The largest need for the American Red Cross chapter here in the Brazos Valley are people with a lot of time on their hands, especially if they have experience as first responders, nurses, mental health workers, and others who have worked with disaster response and emergency management.
To partake in these zoom events this week, rsvp at tinyurl.com/virtualvolunteerfair