As 2025 draws to a close the Illinois Red Cross says they're coming off of their busiest year responding to emergencies in southern Illinois.
Dawn Morris is the Executive director of the South and West Central Illinois Chapter of the Red Cross. She says people know they host blood drives, "But I always like to start with the Red Cross. Our mission is to alleviate human suffering."
To meet that mission they respond locally to home fires, flooding, and tornadoes as well as disasters nationally like hurricanes.
The busy year kicked off with flooding in March, followed by a tornado in May that swept through Williamson County south of Marion, "We were doing distribution of emergency supplies. We were out handing out tarps, shovels, rakes, getting on the ground, making sure that people were fed, and making sure that they had a little bit of hope."
With 90% of their work done by volunteers, Morris says that's their biggest need, "I need people with compassionate heart, whether that be that you choose to be a disaster volunteer and meet people at their hardest moments, or maybe that is working a local blood drive."
Claudia Blackman answered the call to volunteer 60 years ago teaching CPR and swim classes - eventually turning to disaster response, "You go out and help them by letting them keep working, and you can bring some food to them so that they can not worry about how they are going to eat."
After all the disasters she's responded to, she's still driven to help others, "You listen to what the people tell you about what happened and what they felt and what they were doingyoufeel like you really would like to be able to do more."
