The Evil Force is Upon Us

Webster’s Dictionary defines humidity as “an evil force that arrives in central Illinois each summer.  Causing countless women to wear hats or just simply give up on looking decent until fall”. Okay, so that’s a lie… It is my definition of the calamity that hits central Illinois every summer.  I know that when things in life are unavoidable, it is important to be prepared, and being the good Red Crosser that I am…

What Does the Fox Say: Finding the Goodness of People

At the American Red Cross, we know that the worst of times brings out the best in people, but it was hard to imagine that anything good could come from the tragedy of the November 17th tornadoes. How wrong we were!

We cannot change the devastation and heartbreak that the tornadoes caused, but we can change the course of recovery. The horror of the tornadoes awakened the goodness of people, and within hours of the touchdown, neighbors and strangers were banding together to extend a helping hand.

Representative Aaron Schock told us that he drove to Washington as soon as he learned about the tornadoes and saw people trying to climb out of their basements. He helped pull them up and realized they had nowhere to go. He drove them to safety, returned to help more people and soon there was a small brigade pulling people out of their basements and driving them to safety.

Recov-er-wha

Even though I have been up to my eyeballs in Red Cross relief over the last couple weeks, I still try to chat with my “for real” boss everyday. Whether it’s a call in a morning or a meeting after hours, I usually try to touch base with her about what she is hearing and how best to respond.

Tonight, we talked about how to communicate to the public what our next steps are in this response effort. As we chit chatted, I told her about how I was handling questions pertaining to the coming months and how funds will be used. My boss listened and then politely commented, “You use the word ‘recovery’ a lot. That’s means something to us, but not to everyone else”. Ugh. She was right, I was speaking Red-Cross-u-gease.