Volunteers 21

At the Wood Buffalo Regional Library, Librarian Nicole Greville meets with a group of Fort McMurray residents to practice English conversation over coffee and snacks.
 
It’s been more than two months since the ESL group last met and the room is abuzz with conversation. After all, there’s a lot to catch up on.

Red Cross volunteer Nicole Beauchamp, her husband Robert, and their family have long served their community and country. Beauchamp has been with Red Cross for 20 years and spent part of her summer assisting Alberta fire evacuees, first in Edmonton in May and then again in Calgary in June and July. 

Aileen Park, an Alberta fires evacuee, is an artist. Over the last five years, she has made thousands of tiny blown-glass hearts that she gives to strangers in the hopes that they will bring a smile to someone’s face. These small Pocket Hearts are a symbol of human connection and are meant to be shared and passed along. More recently the hearts have been given to people facing hardships or as a thank you for the generosity from others around her. Her little tokens of hope and solidarity are now spread across every continent.

​There is an unlikely friendship -  Alzinia Pailin is an American Red Cross volunteer from California and Marie Bernatchez is a French speaking Canadian Red Cross volunteer from Quebec. But after being paired together on a three-week deployment in the small town of Lac La Biche, south of Fort McMurray, as part of the Alberta fire response, the two women found much common ground including their work as Red Cross volunteers and quickly became friends.

The Canadian Red Cross is recognizing our 120^th anniversary through a new online platform. The project, celebrating 120 years of helping those in need, highlights important moments in our history through significant events and stories displayed on an interactive timeline.  Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with veteran Red Cross volunteer, Ted Itani, to talk about Red Cross history and one item in particular that connects our Red Cross stories: a model landmine.

“I really, really wanted to say thank you. I don’t think I conveyed how grateful I was.” Maggie Ireland fought back tears as she thanked two Red Cross volunteers for their assistance after she and her niece, Jamie, were involved in a car accident in downtown Edmonton.

In 2009, the Red Cross was there for Jillian Mullowney. Now a disaster management volunteer, Jillian shares her inspiration for working with the Red Cross, her experience helping support those impacted by the Alberta fires, and the day everything came full circle. 

So, why did I volunteer with the Red Cross? The Red Cross presented an opportunity for me to volunteer my skills as a semi-professional communications person and write about the indispensable people of the Red Cross and tell their stories.