Agency’s strength comes from volunteers

Published 8:59 pm Saturday, June 3, 2006

When disaster strikes, the American Red Cross is there to help. We all know that. But what we sometimes forget is that the Red Cross is mainly volunteers, ordinary people who do sometimes extraordinary things.

This past week, the Dalton-Whitfield Chapter of the American Red Cross honored some of those “ordinary” people.

Walter Arms received the group’s Sheila Kaye Award for his outstanding service in disaster relief. Arms traveled to Biloxi, Miss., last year to help provide relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. He previously traveled to Richmond, Va., in 2003 in response to Hurricane Isabel, and Sarasota, Fla., in 2004 to help the victims of Hurricane Charlie.

Arms is a former teacher and administrator at Berry College who is certified in disaster response and teaches disaster certification classes for the Red Cross.

Lynette Tripp was honored for her efforts with Katrina disaster relief through First Baptist Church. The church opened its doors as a Red Cross shelter for refugees from the storm, and Tripp served as the church’s coordinator for that effort, organizing all the volunteers.

Latone Goldman was honored for her contributions to public relations through maintenance of the Red Cross’ Web site (www.daltonredcross.com). Julie Dyer was honored for 20 years of service to the Red Cross. And Karen Horne was recognized for her service the past year as chairwoman.

These people, and all of the other volunteers recently honored by the Red Cross, give that organization its strength and make the Whitfield County area a better place to live.