American Red Cross volunteers recognized for service at Fort Knox ceremony

Story and photos by Kevin Sandell, Communications Volunteer

FORT KNOX, Ky. – Over 20 volunteers who serve within the American Red Cross Kentucky Region were recognized for their service earlier this fall, during a lunchtime ceremony at Fort Knox, the sprawling U.S. Army base south of Louisville. Many of the recognized volunteers had served hundreds or even thousands of hours to Red Cross chapters throughout the state.

Fort Knox is home to the Warrior Warehouse, a function of the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces program, and is a building where service members and their families can shop for donated household, clothing, and food items. The warehouse is also the location for the annual “Santa’s Workshop” on base that provides free, donated toys to children of U.S. service members stationed at Fort Knox during the holidays.

One volunteer, who was recognized as the Volunteer of the Year for her 14-year service to the South Central Kentucky Chapter of the Red Cross, said the honor is humbling.

Deann Burns (center) received the Volunteer of the Year award at a
Red Cross volunteer recognition ceremony, Aug. 13, at Fort Knox, Ky.
Burns has served as a volunteer for 14 years
with the Red Cross Kentucky Region. 

“I don’t volunteer for the recognition, or for anticipation of an award, or to try and achieve some elusive number of volunteer hours that are tallied each month with the right to brag,” said Deann Burns, a spouse of a former soldier stationed at Fort Knox. “I volunteer to help someone that may be experiencing some challenges and who needs a little extra help, a kind word or a smile, and to make it a little easier for them to make it through the month.” 

During the ceremony, Burns received a silver platter engraved with her name from members of the American Red Cross Kentucky Region and later described her start with the organization. She began volunteering for the Red Cross in 1981 when her husband was stationed in Grafenwoehr, Germany. When she and her husband arrived at Fort Knox in 2010, there were no Red Cross-hosted blood drives on post, and she was initially asked to be a Blood Donor Ambassador to spearhead the program on base.

Five years later, she was asked to be the Santa’s Workshop Coordinator, where she directed volunteer recruitment, toy donations and coordination with off-base stores and charities, marketing and promotion efforts, and distributing toys to Fort Knox families. Her first year in the job, the Santa’s Workshop provided toys and books to over 200 military families. In the years since, the Santa’s Workshop program has grown in popularity, and nearly 300 children are helped every year.

Another volunteer, who achieved 10,956 hours of volunteer service to the Red Cross services on Fort Knox, said her extensive volunteerism came from being an “empty nester” and wanting to give back to the Red Cross.

Amy Grimm (center), a volunteer with the Red Cross at Fort Knox, Ky.,
earned nearly 11,000 hours of volunteer service, and was recognized
for her service during a volunteer ceremony, Aug. 13, at Fort Knox. 

“[Being recognized] is not what drives us to do what we do, but it's nice to be recognized,” said Amy Grimm, a Fort Knox volunteer and military spouse. “All my kids left at the same time and I just didn’t know what to do with my hands … It worked out perfectly that I could dive into this resource that I’m really trying to assist families with versus staying at home and doing nothing.”

Grimm added that she’s a firm believer of “doing something positive” with her time and that it “fills [my] soul.”

A Red Cross youth volunteer, Gabe Fulkerson, was recognized during the ceremony for his outstanding work with the International Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaign. The Glendale, Kentucky native is a first-year aeronautics student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, and said he volunteers for multiple reasons.

“I volunteer with the Red Cross to improve myself as a person and because I enjoy helping people,” Fulkerson said.

The International Human Law Youth Action Campaign empowers high school and college-aged students to learn about laws that govern armed conflict, known as international humanitarian law. Youth volunteers educate the American public on humanitarian law through peer-to-peer education campaigns and training.

Fulkerson added that other students should volunteer with the Red Cross because doing so “shows leadership, cooperation, and compassion, all of which are skills colleges are looking for.”

Other volunteers recognized during the ceremony received Exceptional Volunteer Service Awards and Time-in-Service Awards for volunteering with Red Cross chapters across the state.

Red Cross volunteers from throughout the Kentucky Region were
recognized for exceptional volunteer service during a
recognition ceremony, Aug.13, at Fort Knox.