Red Cross to host regional trainings; need disaster relief and health service volunteers

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The American Red Cross will host “Heroes Needed” training sessions over the course of the next month. 

The Bowling Green Red Cross says that with the wildfires in the west side of the country and anticipation for hurricane season on the east side of the coast, they want to train disaster volunteers and health service volunteers who can deploy to help.

Once trained, those volunteers can help in shelters for up to two weeks, or provide health services for up to ten days on a national disaster relief operation. 

The Red Cross will provide training, transportation and resources for willing and able volunteers. Potential volunteers will undergo a background check and medical screening. The Red Cross will train them according to what type of volunteer work is a best fit. 

Because the Red Cross is 90 percent volunteer led, the need trained volunteers at the ready, especially in light of the pandemic decreasing their numbers. 

Executive Director Jennifer Capps said currently, the Red Cross has over 300 volunteers in South Central Kentucky covering a 22 county span. 

“We’ve been affected by Covid like everyone else. We just want to make sure that we’ve got the resources in the people available. As we see this uptick in cases, more trained volunteers are just going to be able to help more,” said Capps. “The wildfires the last two years have just been more than we’ve ever seen. We’re expecting another bad year of hurricanes, and we need responders to respond locally as well to our home fires and those sorts of things. This is just building our volunteer base.”

Training sessions available include:

August 30th to 31st, 6:30p.m. – 9:30p.m. EST

September 8th to 9th, 10a.m. – 1p.m. EST

September 11th, 9a.m. – 1p.m. (sheltering classes) or 9a.m. – 5p.m. EST (health service classes)

To learn more or register, contact Stacy Taylor-Bernard at stacy.taylorbernard2@redcross.org or (502)612-9202.