a Day at the Red Cross office in Lubbock

This weeks post is a photographic reflection by volunteer photographer Nabi Kamyabi. We hope you enjoy!

Archer Daniels Midland Company recently donated $2,400

Archer Daniels Midland Company recently donated $2,400 to American Red Cross. The donation will go toward supporting the Financial Assistance we provide to Home Fire victims.

”We are not a government funded organization, our ability to help hundreds of families who have home fires each year in the Texas South Plains is dependent on donations such as this. I am incredibly grateful to have ADM as one of our partners ” said Laura Hann, Executive Director from American Red Cross.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

The donation was given through ADM Cares. ADM Cares is a social investment program that directs funds to initiatives and organizations that drive meaningful social, economic and environmental progress worldwide. The program comprises three distinct focus areas: supporting the responsible development of agriculture, improving the quality of life in ADM communities and fostering employee giving and volunteer activities.

When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea - A new Red Cross volunteers reflections

If volunteering is to be viewed as a sacrifice for one’s community, volunteering with the Red Cross may be spoiling me. I have been volunteering with the Red Cross for just over a month now, and the relationships and opportunities I have found here have made it more of a pleasure to volunteer than a sacrifice.

Growing up in Lubbock, it has always been a little difficult to feel connected with the outside world. As the 2015 Smithsonian Magazine article, “When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea” shows, Lubbock used to be an ocean bed of a vast and expansive ocean. Today it is still easy to look out over the grand vistas of farms and prairies and be overtaken by the same feeling of vastness as if looking out over the sea. After all, we are hundreds of miles away from Texas’ large cities (sorry Amarillo!) and thousands of miles away from the countries that are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Growing up on the edge of Lubbock, it has always been easy to feel far away from the rest of the world.

I have only been with the Red Cross for a month now, but the opportunities and the world-wide actions the Red Cross provides has been incredibly inspiring. For example, the International Committee of the Red Cross is currently sheltering 20,000 refugees from Aleppo, Syria (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-strengthening-humanitarian-presence-aleppo-43898108). In Senegal, Senegalese Red Cross volunteers just finished another distribution of food vouchers to communities afflicted by low rainfall rates. (http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/africa/senegal/senegal-red-cross-and-echo-bring-a-smile-back-to-thousands-of-families-affected-by-food-insecurity-73729/). To be apart of such an organization, even if I am thousands of miles away, is an honor in itself.

            Not only is it an honor to be apart of an organization that is capable of extending such humanitarian aid, but the American Red Cross also provides opportunities to learn and grow as a volunteer. It was to my complete surprise that the Red Cross has an extensive online education program, capable of training me to become more skilled in plenty of different skill sets, including logistics, disaster services, finances and communications. This has been a huge help for me – as a college senior, the only things I feel truly skilled at doing are studying and power-napping, neither of which are particularly useful in the world of disaster response and aid. In these days of expensive higher education, the importance of free training for curious volunteers cannot be overstated. In my time volunteering in Lubbock there have been few opportunities to grow while serving a community, and I am exciting to have the opportunity.

            It is obvious I still have a long way to go before I can help the villages of Senegal or aid refugees in Syria. My foreign language studies have a long way to go, (Je voudrai visiter le Sénégal bientôt, mais les francophones parlent très rapidement. Mais, j’essaie.), my Disaster Response training is just shy of being completed and my graduation in May I will be faced with paying off college debt.

            Yet though I am far away, the Red Cross is allowing me to serve my community while continuing to grow. This is what brings me back each week, and why I considered myself spoiled. Even if the only way I can help currently is making phone calls to ask for donations and cleaning supply closets, I feel much closer to the outside world than before.

Guest Blogger Jerrod Miller