Southeast to become Red Cross shelter site

By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Disaster moves into a community in many forms: flood, fire, earthquake, tornado or ice storm.

Beginning in June, Southeast will be an American Red Cross shelter in case of such disasters.

Longtime Southeast member Don Scheer, who has worked with the Red Cross for 10 years, said it is a great opportunity to minister to hurting people in the community.

“When people are in a shelter, there’s a lot of downtime,” he said. “We can minister to them, show them we care about them and give them ongoing support. Often people who
experience a disaster together forge such deep ties that they don’t want to leave when the disaster is over.”

Alek Jozic, who works with the Red Cross, called the outreach simply “neighbors being neighbors.”

Volunteers who are willing to help at the shelter must take a four-hour class offered by the Red Cross and undergo a background check. In most situations, people who are assigned
to the shelter at Southeast will be members of the surrounding community.

At the class, volunteers will learn how to register people coming in, how to set up cots, care for those with special needs and work with the Health Department to get prescription
medications. Advanced classes will be offered for those wanting to go a step further and learn CPR.

The Red Cross provides cots, blankets, personal care kits and toys for the children. The first class will be limited to 40 people.