HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — The Northern Utah American Red Cross (NUARC) is officially setting up shop on base. For decades the Red Cross has provided a variety of services to military men, women and children known as Service to the Armed Forces (SAF), but few have known about these services.
In an effort to reach out to members of the military, NUARC has been approved to set up a volunteer booth at the BX. This will help provide awareness to the military and retiree community of what help the SAF provides to our active duty, guard, reserves, veterans and spouses.
The volunteer effort will be led by Donnette Dodwell, a retired U.S. Air Force enlisted veteran of 25 years. Dodwell is also married to a fellow retired U.S. Air Force enlisted veteran for 25 years.
Dodwell is grateful for the opportunities she received from serving saying, “The service gave us the ability to provide for our family and the opportunity to travel around the world.”
She explained the difficulties in serving, “We also deployed and traveled on temporary duty assignments and that takes a toll on spouses, marriage and children. I have first-hand experience of both sides of deployments, being the deployed active duty member and being the spouse who stayed behind to manage the household while her husband was deployed.”
Because of Dodwell’s experience on both sides of deployment, she is committed to helping current and veteran members of the military saying, “We will provide resiliency workshops to any squadron, flight, spouse or veteran groups that make a request. And we will provide licensed clinical social workers to facilitate all workshops.”
NUARC provides many other services through their SAF program which include:
• Provides emergency communication to members of the military who are deployed, delivering urgent messages to men and women, no matter where they’re stationed.
• It provides representatives at the Board of Veterans Appeals who help veteran claimants develop appeals and obtain information to assist with their benefit claims.
• Many Red Cross volunteers work in military hospitals and Veterans Affairs facilities around the world. These volunteers provide comfort and peace of mind to veterans and military families who are recovering from illness and injury.
• When men and women get home from deployments, the Red Cross has programs to help them transition and reintegrate into society. Many military members need help readjusting with partners who assumed new roles in their absence, children who have matured, managing long-term health and coping with the challenges of civilian life. To help with the reintegration process, the Red Cross sets up workshops designed to help with communication in families, dealing with stress and trauma, relating to children and working through anger.
Workshops are free and available in your community
Adult Workshops: Communicating Clearly, Exploring Stress and Trauma, Identifying Depression, Relating to Children, and Working Through Anger.
Children/Teen Workshops: 10-4: Confident Coping, Roger That! Communication Counts. Each workshop is customized for children (8–10 years old) and for teens (12–18 years old).
For more information on NUARC or SAF please contact the chapter at www.redcross.org/utah or visit the booth inside the BX. We are also looking for volunteers, please go to www.volunteerconnection.redcross.org to apply. You can also contact Donnette Dodwell at Donnette.dodwell@redcross.org.
