North Alabama Red Cross volunteer shortage

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - The executive director of the North Alabama Red Cross needs hundreds of volunteers to sign-up and help when disaster strikes.

Volunteers are needed in every city and county in the Tennessee Valley.

”We’ve lost volunteers at our front desk, we lost volunteers that work at our hospitals, across the area. We have lost hundreds of volunteers in North Alabama,” said Executive Director Khris Anderson.

When you hear the name Red Cross, most people think about donating blood. Although that is critical and saves lives, there is so much more that volunteers and employees with the Red Cross help with.

In just the past couple of days, there have been several house fires in North Alabama, that volunteers with the Red Cross helped with.

“The family is left with most of the time nothing, except with what they went to bed with that night, so the Red Cross is there on the scene, to help them recover. Without local volunteers, the people who are experiencing the worst night, or the worst time of their life, they’re going to wait for people to arrive from other communities and that is a long wait when you’re in need,” said Anderson.

Whenever there’s a tornado and homes are destroyed, like we’ve seen far too often, the Red Cross has boots on the ground. But now, there are fewer boots, and Anderson needs your help.

“We know that we’re getting ready to head into our Spring storm season. We know that March and April can be some of the biggest storms that we have in North Alabama. Right now we are really ramping up our volunteer recruitment. We’re trying to make sure we have people in every county.

If you are willing to answer the call to help, you can sign up by using this link. https://www.redcross.org/local/al-ms/volunteer.html

Leaders with the Red Cross say, even if you don’t have specific skills, you can still make a great volunteer.

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