Letter from Tennessee River Executive Director, Faye Anderson - February 2015

Mission with a heart! 

Our chapter received a call from the city of Clarksville informing us of an accident not far from the chapter building.  Our volunteer disaster team sprang into action filling up coolers, calling food merchants, and putting on that distinctive Red Cross vest.

Within an hour the ERV was set up offering food, coffee and water to about 40 EMS personnel, firefighters and police officers.  They had been on the site for five hours when we arrived.  Many of them had not had a break since the accident occurred and were so thankful to the Red Cross for serving them.   I watched the volunteers share the Red Cross mission with these men and women. The DAT team that responded that night blew me away with their knowledge and professionalism!  They were ready to respond because of all of the training they have received through the Red Cross. They stayed late into the night to make sure everyone there was taken care of.  It is that volunteer spirit that guides this organization from one day to the next. 

The Tennessee River chapter will focus on the following things to share the Red Cross mission in our communities:

•  Increase volunteer base and volunteer satisfaction
•  Retain a liaison at Austin Peay to set up a Red Cross Club
•  Have the club mentor high school students toward volunteerism
•  Build volunteer DAT teams in each of our counties
•  Offer more choices to our volunteers for preparedness and disaster trainings
•  Work with the communication department at Austin Peay to get ap downloads on campus
•  Work with the board of education to send out a link to the monster ap for their students
•   Grow our board to represent the communities that we serve

It will be a challenge in some of our counties to achieve our goals.  It will take hard work and dedication both from staff and our dedicated volunteers here at the chapter.  We are up for the challenge and have taken the first steps toward not only making our area more prepared, but toward increasing our presence. 

Faye