Red Cross offers free training for disaster workers
The Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Red Cross will offer a quick session this weekend to teach residents from Yuma County and the surrounding area, who may eventually want to become volunteers for the organization, about how to work at one of its disaster shelters.
The free training will be held at the Community Christian Church, 6480 E. Highway 95, on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Anyone who has spare time, is willing to travel, and is interested in helping out during the upcoming hurricane season is encouraged to attend.
Spokesperson Charly McMurdie explained that the training will teach volunteers the basic skills of operating a shelter during a disaster. Participants will learn how to set up a shelter, process clients, assist with reuniting loved ones who may or may not be sheltered at the same location, and closing the shelter afterward.
“Anybody can be a volunteer. The training is free and only requires your time,” McMurdie said. “This is a great way to get started and be involved.”
McMurdie said those who complete the training will be qualified to assist in shelters that are set up locally in response to disasters in their area. They will also be considered for deployment to help out in other areas if they choose to become an official Red Cross volunteer.
“If it is something they decide they want to do, the agency will help them through the process of becoming an official Red Cross volunteer,” McMurdie said.
The Yuma chapter currently has five volunteers deployed and is in need of more. The first two volunteers, Noemi Johnson and Mary Rivera, left Yuma at about 4 p.m. Monday, driving the chapter’s Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) to Raleigh, N.C., where they will assist with delivering equipment, food and water to areas that need it.
McMurdie said Johnson and Rivera, who were in Oklahoma as of Wednesday night, should have arrived in Raleigh sometime Thursday afternoon or early evening. They will be there for 14 days, and if needed (and are able to do so) they can be reassigned to another location or remain there.
Another volunteer, who is a nurse, is being sent to Columbia, S.C., where she will provide medical support to a Red Cross team already there.
Disaster Program Specialist Tom Batson is flying out of Yuma International Airport on Thursday night to Durham, where he will meet up with Johnson and Rivera.
Two other volunteers, Marty Dalton and Chrestian Walker, flew out on Wednesday and will be working as volunteers in a shelter in Myrtle Beach, S.C., serving food, setting up cots and providing comfort to those displaced from their homes.
Those interested can also make a tax deductible monetary donation at Redcross. org. McMurdie said there is also a pull-down window that allows donors to send their money directly toward Hurricane Florence relief efforts.
McMurdie went on to say that the Arizona Red Cross has already sent five ERVs to the Carolinas, and each are carrying cases of water.