Volunteer Appreciation Month: Chris Schepers

Chris, right, and her husband, Joe.
Photos courtesy Chris Schepers.

For Chris Schepers, family ties lead her servant’s heart. “When somebody needs something, you help them out. It starts at home. It’s not always convenient to help, but you still make it work. It’s not a me it’s a “we”. We are all in this together,” said Chris. While her volunteer journey is new, Chris jumped right in to help during the eastern Kentucky floods. She and her husband, Joe, were staying in Jenny Wiley State Park on a vacation when the storms hit. She heard about the damage to the homes. “My heart went out to these people because your home is the base of your family,” said Chris.

Chris did some research and realized the Red Cross would be a great place to start volunteering. “As soon as I got home, I did trainings for about 2 weeks. Then I get a call and I was asked to deploy to Alaska.” Chris deployed to Alaska after Typhoon Merbok hit. She describes Alaska as an adventure. She deployed to help with sheltering and assisted with Damage Assessment of the homes in the impacted areas. She admired their community, saying “They are so resilient and self-supporting. They embody everything I teach my children. You stick together. They started shelters on their own and did potlucks. One was hurting so they all were hurting.”

Soon after, Chris got a call to deploy to Florida after Hurricane Ian made landfall. She was called on to help with Reunification, a process that seeks to reunite families and loved ones that got lost in the storm. Chris recalls one touching story of a woman she helped. The woman had moved homes and was concerned for her previous neighbor. They had lost contact for about two weeks. “We found the couple in Florida. We got [them] on the phone. And the two were able to talk to each other. Both broke down crying. It was nice to hear the two contact each other.”

Chris and Joe have been married for 35 years. They have 4 children: Andrea, Stacey, Allison, and Patrick. They live in Owensboro, Kentucky within a 5-minute drive of each other. The family is expecting their 9th grandchild and enjoy taking the whole family on camping trips. Chris and Joe have taken their camper to 40 states. Now that she’s retired, they want to plan more weekend trips and explore.

Chris appreciates the mission of the Red Cross and plans to recruit more friends of hers to volunteer. “I have met so many cool people with this adventure. There are multiple people I’m working with that are local, and my kids went to school with their kids. You just want to help other people when they are at their worst. It’s such a neat thing. I can’t talk about it enough.”

Thank you for answering the call and jumping in to help others, Chris! You make our Kentucky team stronger! You can learn more about volunteering with the Red Cross at redcross.org/volunteertoday