Dawn Lindblom is the new CEO of the Sacramento-Sierra Chapter of the American Red Cross.

According to Steve Turner, Sac-Sierra Chapter Board Chair, "Dawn is a perfect fit for this position, given her collaborative leadership style and track record. She came directly from her highly successful role as Regional Executive Director for the Inland Northwest Chapter in Spokane, WA".

"Spokane is a regional chapter like Sacramento", Lindblom explains. She oversaw six district chapters spread out over 38,611 square miles, almost two-thirds of the state of WA. Much of the area is rural.

The Sac-Sierra Chapter is the headquarters of eight district chapters in heavily populated areas.

Lindblom says  the commonality between Eastern Washington and northern
California is the dryness factor for wildfires, as well as the potential for floods.

"We will be providing more Red Cross services to help people prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies in our chapter's jurisdiction," she says.

This will be achieved by volunteers.

"The American Red Cross is heavily dependent on its volunteers," Lindblom explains.
This region has around 3,000 volunteers throughout its eight chapters.

Nationally, the American Red Cross workforce is 97% volunteers; only 3% are paid staff.

"When a disaster happens, it's the volunteers who respond to fulfill our mission," Lindblom explains. "We wouldn't exist without our volunteers."

Her role, she says, is to facilitate the chapter in carrying out the Red Cross mission.

The Red Cross' humanitarian mission is preventing and alleviating human suffering.

That is accomplished through these core services—disaster relief, support for military families, international aid, health and safety training and community services like meals and transportation—to people in need.

On a daily basis, 24/7, chapters across the U.S. respond to local house fires.
The Sac-Sierra Chapter has five Disaster Action Teams that rotate weeks of being on call to respond to victims of fire calls in Sacramento County.

While serving as Executive Director in the Spokane Chapter, Lindblom responded, periodically, with the Disaster Action Team volunteers  to these calls.

She recalls one response vividly.

"It was 10am on a Sunday morning and I was drinking my coffee and reading the paper when I got a call from the Team Captain," she says with a smile. "He asked tentatively if I really wanted to go on a fire call."

She says her husband watched as she sprung up, raced around getting dressed.

She says the team drove 45 minutes to get to the fire scene in a rural area.

"When we got there we saw all of their belongings had been tossed out windows by the firefighters in an effort to save them," Lindblom says. The Red Cross team provided emergency relief assistance to a single mom and her three children for food, lodging and clothing.

It was compelling for her to watch the volunteers react with compassion as they fulfilled the Red Cross mission.
 
The Red Cross responds to another type of disaster on a daily basis.

Red Cross emergency communications services keep military personnel in touch with their families following the death or serious illness of an immediate family member, the birth of a service member's child or grandchild or when a family faces other emergencies.

"We are also, literally, by the side of local families as they bury a loved one killed in the line of duty," Lindblom says.

Armed conflict and natural disasters leave millions of people around the globe in urgent need of humanitarian assistance every year.

The confusion and chaos surrounding war and natural disasters often separates families. Through the strength of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network and the assistance of local tracing volunteers around the world families reconnect.

Lindblom says the Red Cross has been able to help find loved ones families have lost track of since WWII.

The American Red Cross has been training people from all walks of life for years in first aid, CPR and  automated external defibrillator (AED) programs designed to give the confidence needed to respond in an emergency situation with skills that can save a life. The Sac-Sierra Chapter trains over 2,000 people a month in its Health and Safety classes.

In the midst of being the "new person on the block", Lindblom is overseeing the chapter's move to a new building the middle of December.

She is excited about the relocation. Thanks to Homeland Security funds, the new headquarters will be equipped with a disaster operation system. It will be equipped with the right tools and resources to handle a large-scale event. In case of power outages, a generator will keep it running.

"We will be located in a more centralized location - right across the street from Cal Expo," she says. "I get to facilitate creating an even greater chapter."
 

Article | Kati Garner, American Red Cross Volunteer

Photo | Courtesy, Dawn Lindblom