Recognizing Eastern Kentucky Chapter Volunteer, Jamie Taylor, for Receiving Regional Volunteer of the Year!

Jamie, second from the right, after receiving the Volunteer of the Year Award

Volunteers are the heart of the American Red Cross and make up 90 percent of our workforce. While we are grateful for the service of all our volunteers, each year the Kentucky Region honors the work of several key Red Cross volunteers who dedicate many hours in service to the Red Cross and their local communities.

One of those honors is our regional Volunteer of the Year award. We are excited to announce that Jamie Taylor, a volunteer from our Eastern Kentucky Chapter, recently received this year’s regional Volunteer of the Year award!

Jamie has been a Red Cross volunteer for 6 ½ years. In the past year alone, Jamie has gifted the Red Cross more than 250 volunteer hours as part of our Disaster Action Team (DAT). Whether it was a home fire 20 minutes from his back door or 3 hours and counties away, Jamie always accepted the call and stepped up to help people in their time of need in his Red Cross vest and with a smile.

Jamie also single-handedly developed and grew the Eastern Kentucky Chapter Logistics team, working his way through training and in-person responses to become the Chapter Logistics Lead. He volunteers to showcase our Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle at local festivals and parades and supports additional volunteer recruitment efforts. He also regularly volunteered at all the local blood drives and recruited for the DAT team while volunteering.

In addition to his service here in Kentucky, Jamie has served more than 690 hours while being assigned to multiple disasters across the country. Our Volunteer of the Year fulfilled varying roles during those disaster responses. He supervised shelters during wildfire responses in California and the middle Tennessee floods, worked as part of the feeding team during the Western Kentucky tornado response, and distributed emergency supplies while responding to the Oklahoma tornadoes. During the summer flooding in Eastern Kentucky, Jamie cut his vacation short to return to Kentucky to help with sheltering his community. After that, he raised his hand to help people in Florida by distributing emergency supplies after Hurricane Ian. Since becoming a Red Cross volunteer, Jamie has deployed to nearly 70 disasters. His goal is to eventually deploy to 100.

When asked why he joined the Red Cross and why he keeps deploying, Jamie replied: “I just really like to help people!”

We are so proud to name Jamie Taylor as the Kentucky Region Volunteer of the Year!

Learn more about volunteering with the Red Cross at redcross.org/volunteer.