Red Cross in need of volunteers
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on August 7, 2016 1:45 AM
bbarclay@newsargus.com
After doing some reorganizing of staff, the Wayne County Chapter of the American Red Cross is looking to replenish its volunteer pool.
"There are a number of different opportunities for volunteers," said Kimberly Berrier, business operations specialist for eastern North Carolina for the American Red Cross. "We need somebody here in the Wayne County office helping answer phones and greeting people as they come in.
It's not a position that requires someone be there every day, Ms. Berrier said.
"You can volunteer as many hours as you want," she said. "We would really prefer that we have the front desk and front door staffed with a volunteer at least two days a week, like maybe Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., or something like that."
Ms. Berrier said that with children going back to school soon, it would be the perfect opportunity for a stay-at-home mother, who could take her child to school, volunteer at the Red Cross office for a few hours, do some errands and then pick up her child from school.
Or it could be a civic group that could take several days and provide a volunteer each day.
"We also need blood drive volunteers, people who go to the blood drives and volunteer as a greeter or in the canteen," Ms. Berrier said. "And we need for somebody to make blood donor recruitment phone calls. We provide the volunteer with a list of active donors to call for a blood drive. If they should have basic questions about giving blood from a donor, they'll know how to direct the donor to find the answer."
Most importantly, the Red Cross needs disaster volunteers. These people will respond to small emergencies in the county, like a single family fire.
"Those could happen at any time day or night, during the week or on the weekend," Ms. Berrier said.
All Red Cross volunteers will receive training.
And the Red Cross is moving toward having volunteers who have been trained do training for new volunteers.
"Our disaster volunteers could go sometimes a week or 10 days without a call," Ms. Berrier said. "But during that time, they're not engaged. We want to use them more efficiently and keep them interested. So we're trying to turn over a lot of the training of volunteers to our volunteers. We're just getting into that, it's a work in progress. But so far, the volunteers who are helping us train other volunteers are really enjoying it."
The Red Cross is also looking for volunteers for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
"Base command has decided, which is wonderful, he wants all of the pharmacy volunteers to now be Red Cross volunteers," Ms. Berrier said.
Volunteers are needed at the Koritz Clinic pharmacy, as well as in the clinic's lab, mental health department, women's health department and physical therapy unit. And they will serve in the base's Red Cross office.
To supervise all of the Red Cross volunteers at the base, a lead volunteer is needed.
Applications are being taken for this position. Those applying must have certain skills and experience, such as management and supervisory experience, experience working with or for the military, a medical background or knowledge of the medical facility organization.
One very important qualification is that the lead volunteer and all other volunteers at Seymour Johnson AFB have their own base access, Ms. Berrier said.
The lead volunteer will help with volunteer orientation, recruit and place volunteers, track volunteer hours and plan and participate in volunteer recognition activities.
He or she must have good communication skills, good listening skills, the ability to work with different cultures and personality types, be able to motivate volunteers and have basic computer skills.
The position requires 15 to 20 hours a week on a flex schedule.
Ms. Berrier said all volunteers will receive training through the Red Cross.
Anyone interesting in applying for the lead volunteer position should email to Kathleen.Pate@redcross.org.
For a general volunteer position either at the Red Cross chapter or on base, email to Kimberly.Berrier@redcross.org.