(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - From house fires in Central Illinois to hurricanes in Florida, Red Cross volunteers help provide food, shelter, and other relief services for victims.

And we have two volunteers here today, Emily Wissmiller and Todd Durham.

They're local Central Illinois Red Cross volunteers and they're gonna tell us what being a volunteer is all about and share some stories from the front lines.

Good to see both of you.

Thanks for coming in.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you, yeah.

- We always do stories about when you folks are being deployed maybe south or you're helping out a family who's had a home fire, but we don't really get the tail end of what you've done, and what you've experienced, and what you've seen.

So, we wanna talk about that.

But first, Emily, if you tell us a little bit about how you became a Red Cross volunteer.

- When I retired, I knew I wanted to help and give back.

It was just a major goal.

And one morning I just woke up and said, "Red Cross."

And I marched right down and I said, "Here I am."

And I've been active ever since.

- Was there anything specifically you wanted to do?

Like maybe you thought, you know, I'd like to go to a different part of the country and help people, or I wanna stay local?

- I didn't know how much Red Cross their reach was until I actually got into it and then picked out a certain, like I like to feed people, and so, that's kind of been my focus.

You help wherever you're needed.

- Sure, and we need help all over the place.

I know that, Todd, you help out a lot in Central Illinois with house fires, things like that.

Tell us why you got involved.

- Yeah, I got involved, because right after I moved Peoria, I've always liked to volunteer and help people out.

And when I moved Peoria, it's kind of a fresh slate of what organizations to help out with.

And when I'm working full time, I'm pretty restricted on when I'm available to help.

So, then I stumbled upon the Red Cross to volunteer in house fires.

They happen anytime of the day, whether it's after I get off work, in the middle of the night, and I've found that I've been able to make a really big impact with volunteering with the Red Cross.

- What does the Red Cross do specifically, for people who have had house fires?

- Yeah.

So, the Red Cross, with house fires, we can respond to a disaster for a house fire or meet clients after everything settled down, we can meet them at another location to provide immediate assistance for them.

That typically, comes in the form of monetary assistance and that really helps address their immediate needs, whether it's getting a hotel for a couple nights or food, clothes, really however our clients see fit to address their recovery right after their house fire.

- And there are plenty of house fires around here, unfortunately.

And I think I read a statistic where the Red Cross, a big percentage of their volunteers are helping with house fires.

There's obviously, more of those than say hurricanes.

- Yeah.

- Which you yourself have come close and personal with.

Tell us where you were for your last deployment.

- I just got back, I was down in Florida.

I did the Hurricane Milton.

And each disasters is unique and each brings its own different problems and experiences.

And you just jump right in, and I feel fortunate to be able to help.

- I going back to, let's say your first hurricane deployment, how different was it than what you thought it was gonna be?

- I had no idea the work involved that just a volunteer and the immediate need that you can give and help and comfort you can give to someone who is in need.

We typically, I do a feeding.

We're in a vehicle that we deliver meals and just to be able to give people a meal that they might not have had power for, you know, a couple days or water, anything.

They're just one meal a day can help make a difference.

- Was it overwhelming when you got into your first post-hurricane area?

- Very overwhelming, very overwhelming, because you are not used to seeing people with nothing.

They've got nothing.

They're devastated, they're struggling, and it's difficult.

And the goal is, which is what we I think as volunteers do, we wanna help in anything we can do, we wanna help.

- Whether it's a house fire or hurricane, people are in a bad way.

They're upset.

How do you prepare yourselves, Todd, first?

Or ask you, how do you prepare yourself mentally to help with these folks?

- Yeah, I think to prepare myself mentally, I just think of how I would feel if I was in their shoes.

If something such like life changing just happened to me, what would I look for in someone coming to help me?

And I try and replicate that as best as I can so that I can seem as if I am all good.

I'm not worried.

Just to be able to provide that confidence for the people that I'm talking with.

And I hope that, that can almost wear off and instill some confidence in them from the help and just the persona that I can come with.

- I would guess that you're a shoulder to cry on, even if maybe that's not the specific reason you are at the scene.

- Exactly.

Sometimes they just need someone to listen.

Just a smile or someone to just understand what they've been through, and just be there.

Just be there.

- What, you know, the Red Cross I'm sure has guidelines as to who can volunteer and who can do what, and that's all fine, but in your opinions, who makes a good volunteer?

Especially, a Red Cross volunteer where you're dealing with disaster and things like that.

- You got just your heart, your heart is in it.

You know, it's just your nature to be helpful.

Most people just wanna help, and there's so many different avenues with Red Cross that you can help.

You can sit behind a desk and guide people, or guide us, or you can just be right out there.

- [Mark] What do you think, Todd?

- Yeah, I mean, I'll second that.

The heart and just always having that will to help other people.

I know one of the mottos, especially when I went on my deployment, I went on my first one for Hurricane Helene.

And one of the mottos that we had was, "Find the way to say yes."

So, if there's a problem, find the way to solve it so help others.

If it's hard finding diesel, ask around, see if there's another location to fill the van with diesel, whether it's at like a county fill up or something.

Just find a way to solve that problem so that we can provide the help that we need to in the communities.

- When people are affected by these disasters, especially a hurricane, I gotta think that a lot of people are just kind of in a daze and maybe they know they need shelter, they know they need food, but may not have any clue as to where to start.

Do you help them with that?

Kinda say, "Hey, let's focus on getting you these things and and move on from there?"

- You said exactly, they're so devastated.

They don't know where to begin.

They're overwhelmed, and sometimes that's, if we can just step in and just guide them.

Just get 'em started in the right path.

That's what we're there for.

- Todd, tell us about your excursion to the hurricane zone.

I gotta imagine seeing, I mean, seeing it on TV is one thing, but seeing it up close has gotta be totally different.

- It really was.

I mean, for my deployment we were out in rural Georgia feeding after Hurricane Helene and all the driving that we would do to the rural communities.

You would just see the devastation and just tree after tree taking out power lines and it almost became normalized.

After being down there for a week and a half, it felt normal to see trees falling over on the side of the road.

And it's really devastating to see all the destruction that happens there.

But then what really makes up for all of that is the smiles that you see on the people's face when you are able to provide them a hot meal.

And we even had a family, it really touched all of us at the kitchen that we were at.

Where the family invited all of us to their wedding, and just the thought and appreciation that it would take to invite people that you don't even know to your wedding that's occurring in a week.

Unfortunately, none of us were able to make it, 'cause we were constantly shifting and moving.

But just the appreciation and the thought that was there really, really had an impact on all of us at the kitchen.

- Emily, any impactful stories come to mind for you?

- Oh, you know, it's like every person that comes through your window in our vehicle has a story and you listen to 'em.

You are constantly checking on, because sometimes you're in the same area again and you're asking 'em how things are going the next day.

Maybe did they get their power?

Did they get water, did they get something?

And you see the slow progress as things come back and life starts to normalize.

And like you said, you start seeing, oh, the neighborhoods all of a sudden got lights on.

So, you know, they're just a little bit better, a little bit better shape, but it's the meals that they just love, because we can make an impact.

So, a hot meal, and that gives the people time to work on other things.

They don't have to come off the roof and think about going to eat, that kind of stuff.

- Yeah.

When you sign up to volunteer, I know that, Emily, you're retired, and Todd, you have a full-time job, so maybe there's a few more restrictions on what you can do and where you can go and how long you can do it.

But is that something that you tell the Red Cross, hey, this is my availability or this is what I would prefer to do.

How does that work?

- They're very flexible.

You can work as much as you want.

You can say you're not available certain days.

It's really up to you.

How involved do you wanna be in.

- And Todd, we were talking earlier you said, you know, you've 24/7, you've gotten calls to help folks.

So, how does it work having a full-time job and still trying to help people out?

- Yeah, definitely.

So, with our system, we kind of, at least with disaster action team for local community calls, we having the system kinda like are generally available schedule.

So, then mine is set up to, all right, well, I'm generally available from after I get off work to probably like six o'clock to give me enough time to get ready for work.

So, then the dispatchers when they get the call from reporting the fire and saying that someone's requesting assistance from the Red Cross, then they can look at those notes for the local responders and then call.

So typically, it works out pretty well.

I don't get too many calls during work, thankfully, 'cause they're calling other volunteers that do say they are generally available during the day.

- Give us a kind of a brief overview of what happens when you get that call that there's a fire, there's a family in need.

Do you go straight to their house?

Do you have to go to Red Cross headquarters first?

How does all the logistics work on that?

- Yeah, it's really depends on the situation.

I'd say most of the time we always go in pairs.

So, there's always two responders that respond to a house fire.

And we typically, will meet at the local Red Cross chapter office downtown, because we have a really nice van there called the emergency response vehicle, or the ERV.

And that van is amazing, because it has seats in the back of the van.

So, the door opens, you can sit in there.

So whether it's raining out, it's dark out, you have really bright lights to light up the area for safety and just have a nice quiet spot to talk with your client and work with them to set up to provide them with assistance.

So, then once you get there with the other responder, hop in the van, we can either meet them at the scene of the fire or if it's a little bit after, I mean it could be a fire that happened yesterday and they just now learned what the Red Cross can help provide.

And then we can arrange a different meetup, a location in a public area.

- Okay, and Emily, when you're going to a situation that's further away, like Florida, are you told before you leave, okay, we need you for X amount of days?

Or do you kind of leave that open?

- You typically, on a deployment you sign up for two weeks and then you typically, depending on how bad it is, you can have the option of extending, but you're there for two weeks.

- How long have you stayed on your longest would you say?

- I've only gone two weeks at a time.

- Okay.

- You're pretty tired after two weeks.

It's a pretty intense schedule.

You know.

- Yeah.

- It's pretty intense, but turn around and do it again in a heartbeat.

But yeah.

- Talk about some of that intensity.

You know, I guess people, you're not gonna run outta people to help.

And again, you got that emotion involved, so you're probably physically and emotionally worn put.

- The schedule is very demanding.

You're a feeder too.

It's very demanding because a hurricane, it hits a broad area always.

And so, then you have to figure out your routes in your vehicles, in your driving.

There's a lot of driving involved to get to a kitchen that they've set up, then to find your people that you're feeding, and then come back and do it again for the evening shift.

Pretty long days.

But they're so fulfilling, because you just you're helping people.

It's just so rewarding.

- When you go to volunteer for the Red Cross, give us a rough estimate of how long it is before you, you know, submit your application to going out and starting to help people.

Do you remember how long it was?

- It really is up to you as the volunteer on how quickly you can get through some of the training that you need.

You figure out really maybe what your avenue is gonna be, what you wanna do.

And then you take the training, and a lot of it's online through courses that Red Cross has got all set up.

So, you know, it's kind of up to you how fast you wanna do it.

- Yep, and sometimes you can get out there pretty quick.

- Sometimes you can.

- When I was in Georgia at our kitchen, we had two brand new volunteers that, I can't remember what state they came in, but they said they signed up like three days before and they completed their training and then they were able to, they were ready to get sent to help with the response.

- And of course, it's great that you provide the physical help, but you also need food to give to these people,- - Food.

- and water and things like that.

Are most of those given by donation also to the Red Cross, most of those items?

- I would say our kitchens are usually, that's all I believe, donated food.

I'm not sure how, where that comes from.

Red Cross doesn't usually do that.

We other organizations do that and we drive up, we pick up our food and we take it to where it needs to be.

- Okay, so you're more of the distribution and things like that?

- Yes, yes.

- So, when you go to one of these places, I assume you're gonna be doing a lot more than even you signed up for.

Like you may say, Emily, "I wanna feed people and that's what I'm good at," but, "Hey, Emily, we need you to,"- - [Emily] Yep.

- "drag some tree limbs outta the way or whatever."

- You never know.

You have to be very flexible.

It's a given.

You're flexible, you never know.

And even the route that you might think that you would be on for the day.

You come in and you're rerouted, because we found another area that hasn't been serviced yet.

And so, you're off onto that area, and yeah, you just never know.

You never know, you're very flexible.

- Sure.

- I definitely second the flexible.

When me and my partner, when we were activated for Hurricane Helene, we were supposed to go to North Carolina.

We get just past Morton,- - Kept that going - and then get a text saying, "Actually, we need you down in Georgia instead."

So, definitely super flexible on those deployments, 'cause you don't know what you may end up doing.

- Have you guys made any relationships with other volunteers from other states?

I don't know, if you repeatedly see the same people or if it may be just one time or?

- That is so fun to go into a, you know, a deployment and you start seeing people that you've worked with before from different states, 'cause we all start out in a shelter.

You know, we stay in staff shelters.

And you go, "I think I know you.

I worked with you."

Our kitchen manager was the same one I've had before.

So, it's very, that's kind of very fun.

And you keep in contact with them, yeah.

- And I bet locally you see that even more.

- Yeah, definitely.

Locally, I mean we have a pretty tight-knit group of volunteers and local community and every month we have a volunteer meeting down at the local chapter.

So, you get to see everyone even if you haven't seen them in between with house fires.

- Do you all have any stories, anything pop into your head about, you know, folks that you've helped that left a lasting impression on you?

- There's always, I think every person that comes to your window has a story.

I had one individual who lost their tent.

They were staying in a tent, because that's their situation.

The tent blew away.

So, she was sleeping in her car, hadn't had food for two days.

You just, you know, your heart is broken.

You just wanna do so much more than just have a meal, you know, take an extra meal.

You just wanna supply the world to her.

Yeah.

- Any times when you're helping people that you have to take a time out and,- - Oh, yeah.

- compose yourself?

- You turn around for a minute and just, yeah, yeah, - Yeah, I would imagine even if, you know, with the hurricane, just everywhere you can see is devastated.

With a house fire, it may be isolated to one place, but either way you've got emotions from victims there that you can't ignore.

- And it's hard to, they'll tell you their stories about being in the bathtub and hearing the noise, hearing, you know, their house falling apart and it's just really horrific, and your heart goes out to 'em.

- Emily, you mentioned earlier that besides hurricane relief that you've dealt with big fires out west.

- I've been out to Oregon, the mountains.

- Any big differences between the two jobs?

I mean, it's all devastation.

- It's all devastation, and everyone needs somebody to listen to them.

Everybody needs food.

I know I focus on food a lot, but a meal just is just such a comfort thing when there's so little else that I can do other than give direction, maybe, you know, some kind of support or give 'em numbers to be calling.

That was totally different to see mountains with no trees and yeah, very different.

- I bet.

So, if you all had to go out and recruit more volunteers, how would you pitch the job to them?

- Oh, if you've got a heart, if you've got compassion, this is your job.

It's so rewarding.

It's just so rewarding.

- Yeah.

I mean, and you get to have such a big impact on someone on possibly the worst day of their life.

You could be one of the, especially after a house fire, there's tons of thoughts going through your head of what am I doing next?

Like, where do you even start?

And being able to help people start to figure out even just something as simple as, hey, here's financial assistance so that you can, you know where you're gonna sleep tonight.

You can go and get a hotel.

That can be to get the ball rolling into the recovery process.

Something as super simple as that and just have such a big impact on people's lives that having a heart and being very compassionate can go a long way, especially for volunteering with the Red Cross.

- And the Red Cross logo, the red cross, is so universally known.

I would imagine when people see you guys pulling up in a trailer, or a van, or whatever, and they see the Red Cross, they've gotta be happy.

It's probably the happiest they've been in a while.

- You come down, you know, we use our PA and we'll come down a road and you know, American Red Cross, we've got, you know, hot meal for you.

And the people just, they know and they come out.

They just know it's gonna be good.

- If you had to, you know, do anything differently on any of the places you've been, I mean, I would guess that you kind of learn a little bit every time you help someone out.

- Like what do you know now that you didn't know when you first started?

- Boy, that's a hard one.

You just listen, you just gotta listen.

- Yeah, being the listening ear.

I mean, before I started volunteering with the Red Cross, I didn't even know that we responded to local house fires.

I thought the Red Cross just did national disaster response and I didn't even know what I was signing myself up for until I did.

And then I was like, oh wow, I can help locally.

I don't have to try and find two weeks of vacation time to go and help on a national disaster.

But that was a big shock to me just knowing just the massive amount of different things that the Red Cross helps with.

- There's people at Red Cross, who can sit behind their desk and work virtually and send us where we need to go.

There's just so many avenues.

Once you join in, you know.

- For those folks who are watching this who may be interested now in helping, but you know, they can't travel a lot or whatever, what are some things that the Red Cross needs?

I know supplies, money, I'm sure would be on that list.

- Oh, I'm sure there's always a need for donations.

Yes, that way I guess would be the primary thing.

Unless you wanna physically come join us.

- Yeah.

- There's a lot of like virtual ways that you can volunteer too.

I mean, another big thing after a disaster is helping families reconnect with each other.

And I know a lot of those were you're virtually deploying where you're going back to sleep in your bed.

- In your own bed.

- And you're just helping during the day on the computer to help reconnect families and loved ones that haven't been able to get in touch with each other.

A lot of different opportunities.

- And that's gotta be really gratifying too, when people are displaced and don't know where mom and dad are or the kids are.

- Yeah.

- Well, to wrap it up, we wanna thank you both for doing what you do.

Not everybody can do it.

- Thank you for getting the word out, because American Red Cross is phenomenal and how they reach people.

- Well, we appreciate what you're doing in Florida, out West, locally of course.

And we'll put up a website, if you have any questions or wanna get some more information from Red Cross.

Emily and Todd, thanks again and I hope some folks watching may be interested' in helping you guys out someday.

- Great.

- Thank you.

- All right, thank you.

Thanks for joining us.

We have to go, but you gotta see this is next.

And you can catch us anytime at wtvp.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues)