Brenda Bivens named as Volunteer of the Month – November 2019

On By American Red Cross of Alabama and MississippiIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Executive Director, Mike Brown, presents certificate to Brenda Bivens

Brenda Bivens has always been one to be involved in many activities and even into retirement, she keeps herself busy volunteering with the American Red Cross. Brenda got her start with the Red Cross in 1996 as a Community Health and Safety Instructor & HIV & Aid Instructor. It wasn’t long before she was deployed to as supervisor on a Disaster Relief Operation in Washington County, Alabama.

Prior to Brenda joining the Red Cross, she held many different titles. Some of those titles were foster mom, ARC board member, regional representative (to nine countries) of the Foster Adoptive Parent Association of Alabama and Certified Nursing Assistant to name a few.

Brenda retired from the Alabama State of Mental Health Department in after 26 years of service. Here, she assisted in designing, developing and implementing the in-house Day Treatment Program at Searcy Hospital, Mt. Vernon, Alabama which was the first of its kind. Since retiring, Brenda continues to volunteer with the South Alabama chapter of the Red Cross as Community Volunteer Lead. She has held this position since October 2014. It would take twenty minutes to list all the contributions Brenda has made to the Red Cross and her community. She is an invaluable member of our Red Cross family and we are honored to recognize her as volunteer of the month.

Bivens also acts as a Red Cross Ambassador responsible for recruiting volunteers, helping with community outreach and assisting the development team with campaigns in the region. “Brenda is the epitome of One Red Cross,” said Sara Manney, Regional Volunteer Services Officer. “Brenda is always willing to help whenever needed.  You never see her without a smile on her face and a positive attitude.  She has been a pillar volunteer for South Alabama and the region.  We are very fortunate to have her as part of the team.” Thank you, Brenda, for all that you do.

Regardless of your skillset, the American Red Cross can use your expertise and is always in need of volunteers. To learn how you can serve your community as a Red Cross Volunteer go to: www.redcross.org/alabama

Laura Puranen’s Survival Story

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When life threw a struggle at this young mother, she decided to fight back.

Laura Puranen, Volunteer Services Recruitment Specialist

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we caught up with our very own Laura Puranen, Volunteer Services Engagement Specialist for South Alabama, to talk candidly about her victory over breast cancer.

You wouldn’t know it by looking at Laura, but this beautiful mother of three is fighting for her life each and every day. She remembers the moment like it was yesterday, “I was nursing my infant and I noticed a lump, it wasn’t normal and I just knew something wasn’t right.” Laura was only 34 years old at the time, six years younger than the recommended age of 40 when women should start getting mammograms.

Laura’s intuition was correct. During her initial appointment, the doctor performed a biopsy to determine if the lump was benign or malignant. When the results came back, the breast lump was malignant. It was Stage 0, a highly treatable type of breast cancer that usually requires immediate surgery and chemotherapy treatments. As one can imagine, this certainly wasn’t the plan Laura had envisioned as a wife and mother of three but she knew she had no other choice but to fight. Laura underwent a single mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery in winter of 2001 to prevent recurrence. Then came another blow, Laura learned that the same chemotherapy treatments that had saved her life had also changed her genetic composition and now she faced a new battle, Myeloid Leukemia, a blood cancer that requires daily chemotherapy treatments through oral drugs.  Laura continues to battle cancer every day of her life but she refuses to let it control her.

When asked what lessons she has learned from her experience, Laura offered, “Time is short, it’s up to us to make an impact during that time.” She added, “push yourself! Don’t settle for excuses.” After she beat cancer, the first time, she traveled to Disney World with her drainage tubes discreetly in tow. She was determined to not let her cancer become an “excuse”. Today, Laura shares her story with others in the hopes that she can inspire women to “listen to your body and pay attention because it could save your life.” As a mother of two girls, she encourages and empowers her daughters to have open and honest discussions with their healthcare providers because they are there to help.

We ended our conversation with a poignant piece of advice from Laura, “Don’t take each other for granted, you never know what others are dealing with on the inside.” Her personal experience continues to inspire her professional and personal life.

Red Crossers Educate Families at McWane Science Center’s “First Responders Day”

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By: Diane “Vicki” Weber / American Red Cross

    “Does [Red Cross] come when there’s a tornado?” asked 7-year old Elijah, with his arms stretched out of the Emergency Response Vehicle’s feeding window.  “Do you make the food?” Both kids and adults present at McWane Science Center’s “First Responder’s Day” event on Saturday posed some insightful questions and received an inside look of the Next Generation Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs).  

Red Cross volunteers, Marguerite, Rev. Turner, Vicki and Disaster Program Manager, Debbie Looney, were proud to stand alongside Birmingham’s first responders and our community partners. The response vehicle joined fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and even a mounted police unit as examples of organizations on call to help the community.

      “We want to recognize our first responders and their families,” explained event coordinator, Kristen when requesting the Red Cross to be in attendance, “and we want to raise awareness and educate the kids about what the first responders do in our area.” Dedicated volunteers braved the exhausting midday temperatures to share information with dozens of Birmingham area families about how the Red Cross helps families and communities – from blood donations to sheltering and disaster preparedness. This event comes at a perfect time known as National Preparedness Month in which community organizations work together urging residents to make an emergency kit, make a plan and be informed. The American Red Cross prepares all year for disasters and urges everyone to Be Red Cross Ready too.

Emergencies are more common than people may think, and disasters can happen anywhere, anytime — they can even begin in someone’s own home. Every 8 minutes, the Red Cross responds to a disaster, and the vast majority of these are home fires. By having an emergency plan and kit, families can react quickly when a disaster strikes. The Red Cross encourages everyone to take three important action steps to get prepared: build a kit, make a plan and be informed. “I remember seeing the Red Cross at the apartment fire last week,” said an ATF official, and we are reminded that we all work together to help those in need. You can find more tips for getting prepared at www.redcross.org/alabama.

Judging by the smiles on the children’s faces, we think “First Responders Day” was a success and we can’t wait to do it again next year!

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Carol Stafford: August Volunteer of the Month

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Carol receives her “Volunteer of the Month” certificate at Montgomery chapter office.

Carol Stafford began her Red Cross story after retiring from a 28-year career with the Alabama Department of Corrections. During her career, Carol also drove a school bus for Macon County Schools. Anyone close to Carol would describe her as being dedicated but that would be an understatement. Since 2016, Carol has touched the lives of military members and their families through her role in Service to Armed Forces (SAF), responded countless times to local disasters like home fires and has become an integral part of the Home Fire Campaign due to her certification in American Sign Language (ASL).

Carol uses her communication skills to focus on educating hearing-impaired individuals about the dangers of home fires and how they can stay safe with a bed-shaker alarm system. When asked why she chooses to volunteer, Carol stated, “I love meeting and helping people”. Bed-shaker alarms are given to hearing-impaired or elderly individuals who would otherwise not hear the typical system in case of an emergency. Often, Carol must seek these individuals and/or families out. Carol added “having Megan [intern from Alabama State University] with me has been a big help.”

If Carol isn’t working on a Red Cross mission, you can find her in the company of her daughter, Mishika  and grandson, Terrell (13). Carol is 54 years old and resides in Shorter, Alabama. Thank you for all that you do, Carol!

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Our First Post

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Welcome to the Red Cross of Alabama

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

We may be a bit biased, but we’re going to say it anyway… the Alabama Region is blessed to have some of the most selfless and dedicated volunteers in the organization. Here in Alabama, our volunteers are different, not in a bad way but just, er, different, let me explain. In Alabama, generally speaking, we like our air conditioning, we love our fried foods washed down with some sweet tea and we can’t simply can’t live without college football (Roll Eagle)! But there’s just something else that makes us unique and that is the way that we encourage and celebrate our own. We take pride in our state and the people in it and the majority of us would give the shirts off of our backs to help a neighbor in need. So it makes perfect sense that when these same people volunteer with an organization that is built upon the same principles and voila, you get a match made in heaven.

For more than 135 years, our mission has been to help individuals and families prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. The Red Cross provides disaster relief assistance to those affected by natural and human-caused disasters. Every day volunteers are working in our communities and helping their neighbors. In Alabama alone, there are over 2,000 active volunteers providing life-changing and often life-saving services. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies
on generous donations of time, money and blood to
provide its services to the community. We are proud that an average of 90 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested into programs meant to better the community.
I’d bet you didn’t know that the Red Cross can be categorized into five unique services? Helping people and communities affected by disasters, supporting the military and its families, teaching life-saving skills, collecting, testing and distributing blood products throughout the nation and partnering with international services to alleviate human suffering worldwide. Ask anyone associated and they will tell you that the Red Cross is a family. No matter if you volunteer for one event each year or you are a staple volunteer that everyone knows, you are a part of this special family of “Red Crossers”.

We are proud that our volunteers represent the community, have diverse and unique backgrounds, speak many different languages, are of all different ages and represent various ethnicities. We invite you to join our family and help make the Alabama Red Cross even stronger.