As Red Cross volunteers, these Tri-City couples make a difference

Fred and Donna Woodcock went to a baseball game in Kansas City in 1994, not long after they got married.

While they were at the stadium, a fire broke out at their hotel.

“We came back from the ballgame to fire trucks and emergency vehicles,” Donna said.

Among those who showed up to help were volunteers from the American Red Cross.

“It was 99 degrees with 100 percent humidity. They were out there with water,” Donna said.

That experience planted a seed. Years later, after the Woodcocks retired, they began volunteering with the Red Cross chapter that covers the Tri-Cities.

They’re two of about 200 volunteers who help keep local Red Cross operations going.

They like helping out together. And they’re not alone — several other couples also help make up the backbone of the local Red Cross volunteer corps.

A group of them gathered recently and told stories of disasters big and small, inside and outside the Tri-Cities — from deploying to floods in West Virginia and fires in Central Washington to showing up after Tri-City house fires. They hand out supplies, offer comfort and connection to resources, set up emergency shelters, organize transportation, provide technological support and more.

For the Woodcock’s, who live in Kennewick, volunteering together works out well.

Donna is a Disaster Action Team lead, and Fred is a DAT volunteer. When the phone rings, alerting them to a house fire, flood or the like, they each know their part.

“We’ve got it down,” Donna said.

Shannon Lewis of Kennewick also is a Disaster Action Team lead, plus she teaches Red Cross classes.

She’s been with the local chapter — called the Central and Southeast Washington chapter — for more than three years.

Her husband, Bob, has been volunteering about 1 1/2 years. He’s finishing training for the Restoring Family Links program, which helps reconnect family members separated by conflict, disaster or migration.

They chose not to volunteer in the same area, instead each doing his or her own thing within the organization.

They both love the chance it gives them to do some good.

“You leave (each scene or deployment) knowing you helped people,” Shannon said.

Wiley and Melodie Witherspoon of Richland have been with the Red Cross for about nine years. Wiley is an operations manager and Melodie serves as the chapter’s training coordinator.

Like many Red Cross volunteers, they also each wear other hats.

The chapter serves Adams, Benton, Franklin, Yakima, Kittitas, Walla Walla and Columbia counties.

It’s had a presence in the Tri-Cities for 100 years, with the area’s first chapter “house” set up in Franklin County in 1917.

Peggy Hoggarth, the chapter’s executive director, said volunteers are critical to the chapter’s ability to do its work, accounting for 97 percent of its service delivery.

Locally, volunteers do everything from helping with blood drives to responding to disasters.

The local chapter has volunteer openings in technology support, community outreach and education, logistics and blood drive support.

The Woodcocks, Lewises and Witherspoons said they recommend it.

When they show up, it’s often on the worst day of a person’s life, Melodie Witherspoon said. But there’s plenty of hope in what they do.

“You get to be there and help them on the road to recovery,” she said. “A lot of times, it’s talking to people. Handing them a bottle of water. Giving them a snack. But for a lot of people, it’s the beginning of recovery.”

To learn about becoming a volunteer, go to www.redcross.org/volunteer.

This story was originally published January 8, 2017 at 5:08 PM with the headline "As Red Cross volunteers, these Tri-City couples make a difference."