Volunteers 23

As March Is Red Cross Month, we’re showcasing five of our many amazing volunteers who go above and beyond to help others. This is the second post to Get to Know 5 Red Cross Volunteers for Red Cross Month.

Chatting with Cheryl Wauthier reminded me of two terms that I learned from an Intro to Physics class: Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy. Essentially, potential energy is whatever energy a body has stored in itself when it is at rest. This energy is converted into kinetic energy when an outside force acts on the body and sets it into motion. When Cheryl joined the Red Cross, I like to think that all the potential energy she had in herself to do great things was released, became kinetic, and hasn’t stopped moving since.

March Is Red Cross Month, we’re showcasing, in a two-part series, five of our many amazing volunteers who go above and beyond to help others. Volunteers are the heart of the Canadian Red Cross. More than 20,000 Red Cross volunteers share their time and skills to help others every day.

Even though I volunteer for Red Cross in Alberta when I am there, some might call me a fair weather friend these days and I’m fine with that.  After all, there is no snow to shovel in Panama this time of year and I can escape the Great White North to experience a completely different way of life and do more volunteering from Panama’s jungles.  

A former Iranian solider and long-time volunteer, Mahmood Jafari, now calls the Canadian Red Cross his family.

After leaving friends and relatives behind in 1997 to migrate to Calgary, his lonely transition was made easier after he met two former Red Cross staffers, Peter Worsley and Vince Bodnar, who encouraged him to volunteer. Although Mahmood suffered a serious injury in Iraq that left him in a wheelchair, he agreed Red Cross would be a good way to help others.

For the past 26 years, Phyllis Wiscombe of Arnes, Manitoba, has given her time to help people affected by disasters, train future disaster responders and improve the Red Cross’s capacity to help people in need. For her outstanding contributions to the movement, Wiscombe recently received the Order of the Red Cross, the highest honour the Canadian Red Cross can give a volunteer.

Diane Story, Master Educator in First Aid, shares about her recent experience at the International Trainer of Trainers project in Paris -  and how the recent events there gave her new perspective on the work of the Red Cross. 

With 20 other highly-trained Red Cross delegates, plus a mobile field hospital and operating theatre, Lynn flew into Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu shortly after the first earthquake.

Within a few days, an entire Basic Health Care facility had taken shape near the remote village of Khokundole. The night they finished, Lynn pulled on her toque and climbed into a sleeping bag, knowing her real work would start the next day.