Four residents of the Northern Miami Valley were honored at the local Red Cross annual meeting. The meeting was held to review last year’s accomplishments including: Sound the Alarm efforts, the election of new officers and honoring outgoing board members.
The following volunteers were honored for their hard work and dedication to the Red Cross mission:
• Helping Hand Award: The volunteer who is always willing to lend a hand, no matter who asks or what the job. The winner was Linda Miller from Springfield, who volunteers in the First-Aid Station, in the Springfield office and is a leadership volunteer in the Veteran Visitation Program.
• Hand in Hand Award: This award went to the PAIR of volunteers who have found joy in volunteering together. The winners were Tom and Karen Oliver, of Union City, Indiana, and they volunteer all over the country as deployed disaster volunteers in Logistics and Mass Care.
• Round of Applause Award: The volunteer who is everyone’s cheerleader, consistently boosting morale and keeping their fellow volunteers positive and moving the mission forward. The winner was Myrna Yoder, of Troy, and she volunteers in Disaster Services as a caseworker and in Veteran Visitation.
• Dirty Hands Award: This volunteer is always doing those jobs that no one thinks about, or no one else cares to do. The winner was John Gross, of Troy, who volunteers in Disaster Services.
Additional awards went out to all volunteers who were currently certified in CPR and first-aid, as well as volunteers who also donated blood during the last year at an American Red Cross Blood Drive. The National Service to Armed Forces Pin was awarded to volunteers who had served in Veteran Visitation for the past 12 months, who logged more than 1,300 visits to veterans in assisted living facilities. Preparedness volunteers were awarded certificates and pins in the Sound the Alarm and Home Fire Campaign effort, which installed more than 1,900 alarms and was credited for saving a young family of three in Piqua.
“As a chapter, we had over 200 volunteers donate over 73,000 combined hours worked and on-call serving the communities in which we live. I’m proud of the efforts made b the willingness of engaged volunteers to assist whenever a need arises.,” said Terri Flood, Northern Miami Valley Ohio board chair.
Chapter staff were on-hand at the annual meeting volunteer picnic to thank not only the volunteers but the numerous partners that make the work happen. More than 20 area businesses were awarded various certificates, for their role in mission delivery.
“Without our partners, such as Honda, who has an employee volunteer program or the Springfield Fire Department, who help install alarms, we couldn’t reach as many people as we do,” said Lynne Gump, executive director of the Northern Miami Valley Ohio Chapter.
In addition to the above mentioned, chapter volunteers responded and gave aid to 90 disasters, assisting 140 families and educated more than 1,000 third through fifth graders in the Pillowcase Program. Volunteer donors gave more than 3,200 blood donations, which saves more than 9,600 lives.
Anyone who would like to learn more about how they can volunteer with the American Red Cross can apply online at redcross.org or call a local office – Springfield, 937-399-3872; Greenville, 937-548-1002; or Troy, 927-332-1414. These three offices serve all six counties of the NMVO chapter, Clark, Champaign, Darke, Logan, Miami and Shelby, providing local service with local volunteers and funded by local donors.
