By Blake Deshazo

The Selma Times-Journal

The fire and police departments aren’t the only ones on the scene when a fire or storm uproots a family. The Red Cross is also there giving families the support they need to deal with a disaster.

“The Red Cross is in Selma every day 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said Kelly Hodges, executive director of the Red Cross Central Alabama Chapter.

“We have disaster volunteers who go out in the community that are on call. If it’s three in the morning they’re there, if it’s eight in the morning they’re there or if it is midnight they’re there.”

Since November, the Red Cross service center in Selma has worked on 17 fire cases.

Those 17 fires were only in Dallas County, which is just one of the four counties the center serves. They also serve Marengo, Perry and Wilcox counties.

“To be able to go out and help the other people is what a community is,” said Edna Vasser, a Disaster Assistance Team member at the Selma center.

“That is what the Red Cross stands for. It is to extend that hand to help people build themselves up.”

The Red Cross is on the scene to immediately offer assistance to families in need when a disaster happens. Volunteers provide families with food, shelter and other basic needs to get them back on their feet.

Being able to help someone in a time of need, Vasser said, is a gratifying and uplifting experience.

“We went to one fire, and the 98–year-old woman who had a fire at her house was out there in the cold,” Vasser recalled.

“I happened to have [a blanket] and I put it around her and she told me, ‘you just don’t know how much I appreciate this.’”

Two workers that are employed by the Tombigbee Healthcare Authority and various volunteers man the center in Selma.

The Red Cross employed someone fulltime, but due to a recent restructure, the position was removed.

Despite the recent changes, the Selma center is still able to handle its day-to-day operations without any snags, Vasser said.

Since the restructure, the center has handled a number of fire cases along with signing up 198 people for its SHARE Program, which helps elderly and disabled people pay expensive energy bills in the winter and summer months.

The Selma center also provides Armed Forces Emergency Services, which helps keep members of the military in touch with their families or get them home in the case of an emergency.

The Red Cross depends greatly on volunteers, and the Selma center is in need of people to help them provide assistance.

“Volunteers are very important for the Red Cross,” Vasser said. “We’re needing more Disaster Assistance Team people.

“We’re looking for people that whenever we do have something happen we can call and say we need you here or we need to go out and do this.”

To volunteer, visit redcross.org/alabama and go to the volunteer connection section. The Selma location is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. For assistance from the local office, call 874-4641.