Mid-West Tennessee Volunteer Spotlight, Tyler Duke - November 2017

Our featured volunteer for this month is Tyler Duke. His parents are Freddie and Dawn Duke and the family lives in McKenzie, Tennessee. Many of you know Dawn and have crossed paths with her while doing volunteer service with our chapter. She’s a phenomenal asset to us and, in the case of Tyler, the apple did not fall far from the tree!

He’s been a member of our chapter since 2013 and said the experience has been very rewarding in many ways. Tyler says it inspires him to help people locally and nationally alike. Most of his time with the Red Cross has been spent serving with our local disaster action (DAT) team and helping with fire disasters and storm damage around the west and mid-west area of Tennessee. He said he’s always had a place in his heart to take care of people.

He recently returned from serving a two week deployment in Augusta, Georgia to help with their recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Irma. While in Georgia, he had the opportunity to work with the local chapters and nationwide Red Cross responders as well. Tyler said he served in a variety of ways from shelter set-up to meal prep and stated that he was always quick and eager to help whoever and wherever he was needed. He said there was ALWAYS something to be done to help maintain and run the 400+ client shelter and he wanted to make sure he did his part to help his team! We have seen this same attitude of service from him in the local chapter while he helps his mom serve in Carroll county.

Tyler said that although deploying was very different from working in the local community, it was just as rewarding! He knew he was not only helping the community and neighborhoods of Augusta and Georgia state wide but was also making a difference in the lives of fellow volunteers. As many of us can relate to that have been deployed, he said he and his fellow volunteers built a bond unlike any other with a common caring and compassion for others.

Tyler said, “Seeing the faces of the clients and volunteers light up and just getting the chance to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds made the whole deployment worthwhile. It allowed me to make new friendships and to learn and apply new things to help better understand how to react and respond better to clients. All of that will help me in my home environment back here in Carroll county!” With an attitude like that, we are certainly lucky to have him and his family serving right here in the Mid-West Tennessee chapter!