Two times a charm for Sandra Heggeness

By Jim Gilloon

 

As a retired office manager at a local retail store, Sandra Heggeness feels right at home volunteering in a Red Cross shelter caring for individuals displaced from their homes by tornadoes or other disasters during volunteer deployments.

 

When she’s not deployed, she serves as the local Disaster Program Manager’s volunteer partner in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Sandra wears many hats as a Red Cross volunteer, from supporting the day-to-day disaster needs at the Red Cross, to working as a Shelter Supervisor and a Shelter Resident Transition team member. 

After she returned home after her first two-week assignment, she is back for her second deployment in Western Kentucky tornado recovery efforts. "I came out to help people," said Sandra. "I saw the worst damages I have ever seen."

 

"I came back to Kentucky because there was more work to be done.  I felt a strong desire to help the residents that were still in need.  I like to do as much as I can, and sometimes two weeks is not enough time to complete the work."

 

When deployed to the Texas Floods, Sandra was at a staging area near Fort Sam Houston where her dad was buried, and took the opportunity to visit his gravesite.

We asked Sandra what stood out in her mind when helping families after the devastating tornadoes last month... "Kentucky people are strong and resilient and need much help, which encouraged me to help them.

 

Thank you, Sandra, for your five years of dedication and the love you have to help others during their darkest days.  

 

Red Cross training is free, but the hope you provide is priceless. Visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to join.