Mid-West Tennessee Volunteer of the Month, Dawn Sacks-Duke - March 2018

Dawn Sacks-Duke is a woman who will “give it her all” to the American Red Cross. Dawn has always been involved in community service organizations, such as Lion’s Club, Business Professional Women and ACS, but, in 2013 she found herself searching for an organization that would allow her to directly give back to the community. In learning more about the Red Cross, Dawn saw first-hand how the donations and funds are given back to individuals within the community and she knew then she wanted to be part of it.

After becoming a volunteer in July 2013, Dawn did not volunteer as much as she truly wanted to, but when Disaster Program Manager, Heather Carbajal, came on board, she was encouraged to get more involved.

“Heather really made it her mission to come out and get to know the volunteers and get us more involved,” said Dawn. “Heather has been instrumental in providing me with numerous opportunities to be active with the Red Cross and truly give back.”

Throughout her years volunteering for Red Cross, Dawn has been the Disaster Action Team (DAT) Captain for Carroll County, a disaster responder, a Pillowcase Project presenter and a member of the Mass Care Team. In 2016, she did a deployment for the Gatlinburg Wildfires and Tornadoes in East Tennessee.

Dawn said her favorite part of serving with the American Red Cross is the opportunity to work with individuals who have the same desire as her, which is to help others. She believes the most important criteria for a volunteer is that an individual have a servant’s heart and be willing to serve other’s first.

“With the Red Cross, time does not matter,” Dawn said. “It can be 2 am or 10 pm, but if a person or family needs assistance, we are there. The volunteers put others before themselves and the volunteers look after one another. Basically, the volunteers become a big extension of your own family.”

Dawn graduated from Bethel University with a bachelor and master’s degrees in business, then completing all of her doctorate studies in business from Walden University. She works full time as a program mentor for Western Governors University and is adjunct faculty for Bethel University in the SUCCESS Program where she teaches business courses. She has been married for almost 21 years to her husband, Freddie and they have two children, Tyler (age 19) and Taylor (age 11). The family currently has five fur babies – 3 of which are rescues: Stormy, Roxie, Lucky, Bella and Hope. During the family’s spare time, they love to go camping and spend time at Land between the Lakes. They also spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to Florida visiting her parents who live near the Orlando area.