My Story Monday: Jamie Taylor

Jamie has volunteered with our Red Cross Eastern Kentucky Chapter for 5 years and donates his time as a Disaster Action Team volunteer and blood donor ambassador. He dove into volunteering in 2015 when floods struck his Martin County, KY community and helped serve as a guide for Red Cross volunteers while they worked on assessing flood damage.

“There were some people who weren’t familiar with Martin County like I was,” said Jamie. “The next thing I know, I’m signed up.”

While Jamie’s early deployments kept him close to home, where he supported flooding and other local disaster responses in the Kentucky Region, he has since deployed 25 times to help support disasters across the country. Many of his deployments have been to hurricanes in the southern states, the first being Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The farthest Jamie has ever deployed was to California, where he assisted with the response to the Oroville Dam crisis.

Jamie typically works as a shelter supervisor on deployments. Shelter supervisors guide and support the day-to-day activities within a shelter, including providing information to shelter residents, coordinating meals and making sure the needs of the shelter residents are being met.

His most memorable deployment experience happened during Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. Due to severe flooding, Jamie and several others were airlifted to the local school where they were going to work as shelter volunteers.

“It was the first time I ever got to ride in a Black Hawk helicopter,” said Jamie. “It was the only way I could’ve gotten to the job site. When we got to the shelter, we landed on a tennis court or football field and walked into the school."

Jamie also worked as shelter manager on his two most recent deployments this fall, where he spent several weeks in September and October supporting Baton Rouge and New Orleans residents after Hurricanes Laura and Marco. His role involved keeping track of local conditions, making sure COVID-19 safety protocols were being followed, and making sure residents’ needs were being met in the hotel they were using as a non-congregate shelter.

Even after a busy hurricane season, Jamie is still always prepared to answer the call when disaster strikes.

“It’s an opportunity to go to different states that I’ve never gotten to visit, [and] that same desire to help people. I’m always up and ready.”

You can learn more about becoming a Red Cross volunteer by visiting redcross.org/volunteertoday.

Kentucky Region Welcomes New Senior Disaster Program Manager

The Kentucky Region Red Cross is excited to welcome Zach Stokes to our team! Zach joins us from the Tennessee Region and will become our new Senior Disaster Program Manager serving Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Southern Illinois.  

Zach Stokes is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He graduated from Norwich University in Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts in Studies in War and Peace and a Master of Arts in Military History. While finishing a Master of Science in Justice Studies in 2016, he started volunteering with the Central Southwest Chapter of the Oklahoma Red Cross and was soon deployed to Louisiana for the Baton Rouge Floods, then to western Oklahoma for a tornado. He joined AmeriCorps, a network of national service programs that work to improve lives and foster civic engagement, in 2017, and served with the West Michigan Chapter of the Michigan Region Red Cross. There he supported chapter activities and responses, as well as helped plan and coordinate the Home Fire Campaign and Sound the Alarm.  

In 2018, Zach became the Disaster Program Specialist for the Nashville Area Chapter of the Tennessee Region Red Cross.  He helped increase both the Disaster Action Team and Preparedness Education programs. He participated in several major disaster responses, including 90- and 40-unit apartment fires, flash flooding, and windstorms. During the 2020 Middle Tennessee Tornado response, he led Community Engagement and Partnerships, and increased partnerships with the NAACP, Islamic Center of Nashville, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, National Baptist Convention, African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International.  

Outside of work, Zach loves to watch football, read military history books, try new restaurants and food, kayaking, and hanging out with his 9-month puppy, Trey. He looks forward to exploring Kentucky and meeting the staff and volunteers of the Kentucky Region.