She had me lean down to her face to face and put her hand on my forehead and said: “bless this angel that has come to feed me”. I told her we weren’t going to be available for a few days and this would help her out. I went back to the vehicle and filled up the pan with the rest of the food we had and gave her lots of snacks and a case of Ensure. We were close to the end of our route, another tornado was coming and our kitchen was closing down until it passed. She said that her son – who was living in New Orleans – was the one getting her groceries, but she hadn’t heard from him for over a week.
I said, ‘This is the Red Cross, we have food’. One of the neighbors said ‘be sure to stop at the first house’ so we did. Some of them happy while others left her with a bittersweet sensation: “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our team was delivering meals to affected people. When Helen is not deployed, she serves as Mass Care Lead for the Easter North Carolina Region.Īfter so many deployments, Helen has all kinds of memories. I have also deployed as a caseworker and even as an Emergency Response Vehicle driver,” she says. “I have deployed in all the roles of Mass Care: I have operated several kitchens serving over 4,000 meals daily. She stayed two weeks on this deployment before returning home. She was part of the feeding team, working hard to make sure that everyone – from the shelter residents to other volunteers and staff members – had hot meals every day. In January 2023, Helen was one of many volunteers from all over the coutnry who touched down in California and helped both people and communities affected by the atmospheric river storm systems and subsequent floods. I felt the need to help others,” she explained. I decided to reach the Red Cross office and volunteer. “I had extra time my employer was cutting my work hours by 10. Helen joined the Red Cross when her husband – a Marine on active duty – was deployed to Kuwait. “Compassion is a thing of the heart,” she says.
She’s even served more than once during the same disaster response in different roles. She started volunteering with the Red Cross in 1991 and currently has more than 125 deployments as a disaster volunteer.
When we say “the power of volunteers,” we talk about amazing people like Helen Miller from Eastern North Carolina. The American Red Cross mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
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