By Katherine Liu, Red Cross Volunteer

When wildfires tore through Oregon in 2020, thousands were forced to flee from their homes. The year saw the most destructive fires on record in the state, burning more than 1 million acres of land. In the midst of all the uncertainty and chaos, Central Oregon resident Julie Bolt decided to start volunteering with the Red Cross to assist with disaster relief in her region.

Congregate shelters are frequently used by the Red Cross during natural disaster relief to provide a safe place to stay for those dislocated from their homes. They are usually set up in existing buildings like schools and churches, allowing for quick deployment of resources and assistance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many congregate shelter operations were halted because they were especially vulnerable to disease spread. There weren’t any shelters available in Julie’s area at the time of the fires. “We were putting all the people that had been displaced up in motels and hotels in Bend,” she recalls about her first volunteering experience.

The 2020 wildfires were only the start of Julie’s volunteer work with the Red Cross. Though she would be involved in some smaller operations for the next few years, her first national deployment came in April of this year, when she traveled to Kentucky to assist with flood relief. She remembers it as a “very different experience from wildfire shelters, because there’s just a lot more people displaced at one time.”

The Red Cross has over 275,000 volunteers nationwide, with support from the community making up over 90% of its workforce. This type of volunteering that makes a large, real impact has always been something that Julie aspired to do. “You see stories on the news about these people who go out… They leave their lives, and they go out somewhere to help people on the ground,” she says about how she found inspiration to volunteer.

Now retired, Julie is able to put more of her time into her dreams of helping those going through hard times with volunteering, and she is enjoying the experience of positively affecting the lives of others through her work. “Everybody is always very appreciative,” she says, “and it’s just a very rewarding thing to do.”

If you would like to volunteer with the Red Cross, it’s easy to do.  Just go to RedCross.org/volunteer and find the opportunity that fits your lifestyle.  Training is free!

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