COVID-19: Red Cross Offers Virtual Care for Families Who Have Lost Loved Ones

Virtual Family Assistance Center provides resources to those struggling with loss and grief due to the pandemic

MILWAUKEE, Wisc., June 23, 2020 — The American Red Cross of Wisconsin is launching a Virtual Family Assistance Center to support families struggling with loss and grief due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

People can visit the Virtual Family Assistance Center online here to access a support hub with special virtual programs, information, referrals and services to support families in need. The hub will also connect people to other community resources provided by non-profit and government partners. People without internet access can call 833-492-0094 for help.

“Our goal is to provide connections to resources for Wisconsin families personally affected by COVID-19, especially due to the loss of a loved one,” said Mark Thomas, American Red Cross Regional CEO and Southeast Wisconsin Chapter Executive. “We want affected families to know that the Red Cross and our partners are here to provide compassion and support as they grieve.”

Many families have experienced a disrupted bereavement and grief process due to restrictions related to COVID-19. To help, the Red Cross has set up a virtual team of specially trained mental health, spiritual care and health services volunteers who are:

• Connecting with families over the phone to offer condolences, support and access to resources that may be available
• Providing support for virtual memorial services for families, including connecting with local faith-based community partners
• Hosting online classes to foster resilience and facilitate coping skills
• Sharing information and referrals to state and local agencies as well as other community organizations including legal resources for estate, custody, immigration or other issues

All Family Assistance Center support will be provided virtually and is confidential and free.

For media contact: Aubrey Dodd, communications volunteer, American Red Cross, aubrey.mke@gmail.com

‘The only person she could turn to right now was the Red Cross’: a disaster volunteer shares anecdotes of service during COVID-19

Transcription & Photos by Justin Kern, American Red Cross

We recently talked with Southeast Wisconsin Chapter disaster action team volunteer Paul Beinecke for a video project that covered the added challenges and rewards in work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not every portion of Paul’s touching input was included in the video, but all of it was moving.

American Red Cross volunteer Paul Beinecke talks with a resident displaced by an apartment fire in winter 2019 on the East Side of Milwaukee.

Below, we pulled a few additional takeaways and anecdotes from Paul, in the hopes that you’ll get yet another glimmer of the stories and heart that drive our thousands of volunteers here in Wisconsin.

On some of the emotional challenges in providing care amid COVID-19:

“One of the things I’ve noticed … during the COVID environment is that we’re all experiencing different forms of isolation and stress. And yet, when we meet these individuals, it comes down to a human element. We’re on the same page. We see things through their eyes, that we might not normally see, experiences with individuals of diverse backgrounds.

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On keeping up support for people displaced by disaster during a pandemic:

“We haven’t changed what we deliver to clients. The method of delivery has changed a little bit. We still deliver disaster mental health services, we still supply disaster health services, we supply lodging, when necessary, we supply food and feeding when necessary.

One change is that we screen our volunteers and we screen our clients [for symptoms of COVID-19]. We practice social distancing. It’s been actually going over very easily, both with our volunteers and with our clients. The clients don’t get upset when we talk about COVID screening, when we practice social distancing. In many cases, they ask us to (socially distance) before we even ask them to. So, it’s been a good experience. (Volunteering with) the Red Cross has always been a good experience for me. It’s hard to help people and not feel good about it.

On being a parent and grandparent, then seeing people with their own children affected by home fires:

“When I was working with a young mother … being a grandfather (myself) and having a couple of young grandchildren right now, it was hard for me to imagine, seeing a young woman, a single mother, with a one-month old and having to deal with the loss of everything in her household.

The only person she could turn to right now was the Red Cross. The Red Cross was there for her. That makes you feel good.

Robin Berzowski, foreground, arranges food deliveries for people affected by a fire in Greenfield in spring 2020 with her husband and fellow volunteer, Jim.

On the empathy of his disaster volunteer colleague, Robin, while fighting back tears:

“So Robin (Berzowski) is one of our volunteers who is on the disaster team with me. … You know, we all talk about ‘clients.’ That’s what we’re trained to do and that’s how we talk about it. We refer to everybody as a client.

Robin refers to everybody by their first name. … It’s tearful for me, I don’t know why. (Paul, fighting back tears:) She just has empathy that is just unbelievable.

She goes out onto a scene, like an apartment fire, where there’s 20 people. [In our casework] we refer to the client by number. Robin refers to clients by name, every single one of them.

I’ve been to a couple of the larger fires after Robin has been with them. And all of them ask me where Robin is. Robin has brought flowers to people [to Dolores, an octogenarian living alone and displaced from a fire over Easter]. She knows everyone by name.”

Your generosity supports the food and resources brought to people recovering from fires, floods and other catastrophes. That generosity is doubled for a short-time; if you give by June 24, a support is matching all gifts to the American Red Cross of Wisconsin. Thank you for considering a gift that doubles your impact.

Special thanks to Lance and the team at Plum Media for capturing Paul’s story as part of their powerful videos that led our 2020 Brave Hearts event.

‘The kindness in your voice makes a difference’: over the phone from Wisconsin to Michigan, volunteers talk about virtual deployments

Story By Angela Glowacki / Photos by Perry Rech, American Red Cross

Despite a global pandemic, our Red Crossers are still connecting with and assisting those in need from large-scale disasters through virtual deployments.

Liz Marsh and Barbara Gugel are two dedicated Wisconsin Region volunteers who have been virtually deployed in response to the central Michigan flooding that occurred in May.

Now that they’ve been helping our neighbors in Michigan for the past few weeks, we asked them to share their experiences with virtual deployments, how it compares to other in-person work with the American Red Cross and the takeaways they’ve heard from people on the ground in Michigan.

Flood damage in what remains of downtown Sanford, Mich., following the draining of both the Wixom Lake and Sanford Lake impoundments along the Titabawassee River. 

Liz Marsh

Liz started her journey with the Red Cross three years ago after deciding that she wanted to do something for her community. She has been virtually deployed five times – assisting in the recovery process of disasters from tornadoes in Texas and Illinois to flooding in Wisconsin. In addition to being a dedicated volunteer, Liz is a mother of five who lives in northeast Wisconsin.

“I wanted to see a change in my community … and there was no Red Cross [volunteers at the time in Shawano County] … so I wanted to do something for our community to help”, Liz said.

Interestingly, Liz has only ever been virtually deployed to disasters. When asked how it feels to still be able to do her work despite current circumstances, she replied that it is fulfilling to know that she is able to be a resource for people in need.

Liz’s Michigan experience

Liz has been working in the Midland area of Michigan and has been working with many senior clients, where she addresses some added difficulty for them due to COVID-19. She expressed how it has been challenging for seniors in particular due to their increased risks from potentially contracting the virus.

One of the people Liz has worked with during her virtual deployment to Michigan is a veteran who suffered from a stroke back in November. Two days after he was released from the hospital, the flood occurred, damaging his and his wife’s home. A stroke, a pandemic, the flood and then the added stress of paying for all related home repairs and hospital bills. Liz has been working with this couple throughout her time being virtually deployed – she was even promoted to supervisor –assisting them with finding resources and providing support.

“I can relate to the mass devastation of not knowing the next turn and needing the extra help and … [I get] the ability to be a killer resource and figure out the problem and solve it so they can move on to recovery,” she said.

Michigan volunteer American Red Cross Disaster Assessment Team members on a deserted and closed state road in Edenville, Mich., immediately downstream from the failed Edenville Dam.

Barbara Gugel

Barbara joined the Red Cross as a volunteer one and a half years ago, thanks to her neighbor who got her interested in volunteering with the organization. Her volunteer work with the Red Cross includes experience in sheltering, feeding, casework, driving emergency vehicles, as well as being a Disaster Action Team supervisor for Columbia and Dane Counties.

When the flooding in Michigan occurred, Barbara began calling those affected by the flood, helping them find temporary housing and addressing their needs. In the first two days of her virtual deployment, Barbara had contacted 32 people and opened 12 cases all from her home in Lodi, Wisconsin.

Barbara’s Michigan experience

Barbara is working with people located upriver, in the counties of Gladwin and Beaverton of Michigan. One family that Barbara has connected with is a family of four, plus the mother’s elderly father in law who has physical limitations. They have been staying in a hotel during these past couple of days. Barbara has been staying in touch with this family frequently during her time virtually deployed, providing them not only with support, but also a listening ear.

Not all of Barbara’s clients are sheltered in hotels. She mentioned that some of her clients were renting campers, or borrowing them from friends. Campgrounds around the area have opened up for these clients to give them a place to stay. In some cases, if a client’s property is safe enough, the camper is parked on the property so that the family can still be near their home.

“You’re still helping to alleviate human suffering,” Barbara said. “The kindness in your voice makes a difference.”

Virtual or not, you can still make a difference

Thanks to volunteers like Liz and Barbara, the Red Cross has been able to assist many people affected by the flooding. Despite the deployments being virtual, our volunteers are still able to be there for their clients and get them the help they need. Beyond that, they are able to be a much needed listener and a (socially distanced) shoulder to lean on. Here are two ways you can help this mission continue, virtual or in-person:

• Join our volunteer teams. You can take that first step by entering your info and interests here.
• Support our mission. You can donate to our mission to ensure our teams are always there to help, wherever disaster strikes. Bonus: if you give through June 24, your contribution will be doubled thanks to support from another generous donor.

Disaster preparedness for youth goes virtual

By Justin Kern, American Red Cross

Even tornadoes have gone virtual in these days of remote schooling, social distancing and Zoom meetings.

Jesse Coates, American Red Cross volunteer, recently led a lesson for seven elementary school-age children from Wisconsin through a virtual version of our Pillowcase Project lessons. These lessons are typically very hands-on, with dry-runs of disaster do’s and don’ts, and the occasional high-five.

A screenshot from a recent Pillowcase Project virtual lesson led by American Red Cross volunteer Jesse Coates.

So, in the current virtual and remote environment instilled by the pandemic, Coates relied on vibrant language, props and visuals from the lesson plan to engage his online “classroom.”

As Coates put it: “Tornadoes, they can be the scariest. Do you know what a tornado is?”

Isabelle, one of the students, put it plainly, through her computer screen on the other side of the state: “Mean.”

Coates: “You guys rock, you’re awesome at this. You all are smart, that’s right … and remember to stay inside and away from windows.”

Pillowcase Project is typically taught by a few volunteers, in front of entire classrooms of kids, as an extreme weather and disaster preparedness course for youth ages 8-to-12. It’s complemented by Prepare With Pedro, another preparedness lesson set for 4-to-8-year olds.

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During the recent first round of virtual lessons, Coates was clearly still finding ways to have fun and learn, and get the young people in this lesson to do the same. In materials shared on the screen and guidebooks accessed by adults who helped to guide their young attendees, Coates talked through things like where to go if tornado sirens sound, and how to cope with destruction from a fire. And, as children often do, they posed unexpected and big-picture questions.

From Isabelle, one of the students: “What starts the fires?”

Coates: “Fires have a mind of their own. It happens everywhere in all sorts of weird ways, that’s why we want to talk about this now … and talk about it with the big people at home.”

Our teams are ready to lead virtual disaster preparedness lessons for schools, organizations and youth groups. For information and scheduling, contact Nick Cluppert, Red Cross Senior Disaster Program Manager, at nick.cluppert@redcross.org.