Helping Where It's Needed Most

 By Jim Gilloon and Taylor Poisall

Tanya Garrity, a long-time Kentucky Red Cross volunteer, has been 200 miles from her home and family in Shelbyville, KY since the day after the tornadoes struck Kentucky. And for the last 30 days, Tanya has been resolutely focused on helping families displaced from December's devastating tornadoes. 

From those first initial days after the tornado, she was running a Red Cross shelter at Jennings Creek Elementary School and caring for community member's immediate needs. But she didn't stop there. One evening after her volunteer shift, she was still in her Red Cross vest when she stopped to get gas. She came across a man and instinctively knew he needed her help. Even though they didn't speak the same language, through an app she asked him if he was displaced by the tornado, and they began communicating through Google Translate in Swahili and she found out he was scared to go to a shelter. 

The following day, Tanya ended up bringing his family food and ended up delivering meals to seven families for the next week and a half. She shared "just because that family didn't come to the Red Cross shelter doesn't mean we can't care for them."

Tanya then went to Walmart to shop for the families, where she procured formula, bottles, a playpen and more for the youngest member of the family, who was only a few months old. At the time, the baby was sleeping on a pillow on the floor, and the bed Tanya gave them was the first time the baby would be sleeping on a bed thanks to the Red Cross. When she was leaving, she shared with the family that at the Red Cross, “our role is to be humanitarians and all we care about is your recovery - that’s just what we do.”

She left their home with tears in her eyes and pride that “we broke the barrier down” so the families had what they needed ahead of Christmas and to get through the next few weeks. 

This one situation illustrates the way Red Cross volunteers like Tanya go above and beyond to use the tools they have to help others. She lives the motto of serving with "relentless kindness, because we are a compassionate organization." 

Thank you, Tanya, for your dedication and compassion to others in need. There are many ways to give back as a Red Cross volunteer. Visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to join learn more. 

You never know who you will meet at the Red Cross. Tanya was thrilled she met Mary Poppins at a shelter!