Looking to fill your time with real sense of purpose? Red Cross needs you

LIBERTY

Wanted: Good-hearted people who want to help their community and its residents — all for no pay but with rewards worth far more than money.

The mission: Signing up to be trained as Red Cross disaster-services volunteers.

The need is urgent, particularly in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, which are down to two volunteers each, said Karen Conklin, director of the American Red Cross Lake to River Chapter, located at 3530 Belmont Ave.

“We’d like to get 20 more volunteers each in Mahoning and Trumbull,” she said.

The other counties in the Lake to River Chapter — Ashtabula, six volunteers; Columbiana, 10 volunteers; and Jefferson, 24 volunteers — are in better shape.

“It is a perfect job for retirees who have time on their hands and are looking for something rewarding to do,” Conklin said.

“There is something that changes us inside when we put a blanket around someone’s shoulders who is standing outside their home as it is destroyed by fire,” she said.

Two stalwart Trumbull County volunteers — Gail Hanes of Southington and Furman Alden of Warren — talked about their service with the Red Cross.

“To be a volunteer on a disaster action team [DAT], you have to be available, committed and reliable,” said Hanes, retired office manager for Lynn, Kittinger & Noble in Warren, who has been a Red Cross volunteer for three years.

“It’s not a glamorous job. ... You can get a call anytime night or day. But it’s a comforting feeling to go out and help someone in need,” she said.

Alden, a retiree from Delphi-Packard Electric, has been sent to eight national disasters in his six years as a Red Cross volunteer.

He recalls driving an emergency-response vehicle delivering food to victims of a hurricane who lived in a mobile-home park in New Bern, N.C.

“All these people had fear in their eyes. ... When we handed them food, you could tell how grateful they were that we were there,” he said.

Read more about the work and the need in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.