Courtesy Photo by Scott Dalton/American Red Cross
As natural disasters and public emergencies across the country continue to stretch the resources of public, private and not-for-profit humanitarian organizations, the Long Island American Red Cross is ramping up efforts to provide more opportunities for East End residents to get involved in relief efforts.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that we’re a government agency that gets funding through our government, and we do not,” said Long Island Red Cross chief executive officer Jose Dominguez. “And we’re very fortunate not to be a government agency, because we’re able to offer services to every single person that needs [help], no matter what their status or citizenship is. We don’t discriminate based on any of that.”
Throughout 2024, Mr. Dominguez said, more than 1,000 local Red Cross volunteers across Long Island have donated roughly 60,000 hours to helping others.
Calamitous times tend to bring people together — an altruistic trait that has held true in Los Angeles as wildfires have burned more than 43,000 acres, displaced some 100,000 residents and resulted in at least 24 fatalities. While the fires continue to burn, Mr. Dominguez said that roughly 8,000 Angelenos have volunteered to help with Red Cross relief efforts.
“That’s a tremendous outpouring of community members coming to help their own communities,” Mr. Dominguez said. “Which is exactly what our model is about.”
When Hurricane Helene bombarded Asheville, N.C., in September, triggering deadly mudslides and catastrophic flooding, Mr. Dominguez joined other area disaster relief response volunteers to help in the recovery effort. The emotional toll of being deployed to disaster zones for 14 days can be extremely difficult, he said.
“The fact that we were providing these services while there were still rescue efforts happening, and getting devastating news, having to deliver that devastating news to families that were staying in our shelter about their loved ones, ” Mr. Dominguez explained. “You know, our volunteers saw that direct impact, and it changed the tune of the way we provided services. We were so sensitive, and we were very protective of our shelter residents because of that.”
The Long Island Red Cross has seen an influx of some 150 volunteers in the past few weeks, whether prompted by the Los Angeles fires or inspired by New Year’s resolutions to be more charitable.
More than 275,000 volunteers helped support Red Cross humanitarian efforts across the U.S. in 2024. Mr. Dominguez hopes to encourage others to answer the call and volunteer.
“It all starts with redcross.org,” he said. “You go onto our website and there’s a little banner that says ‘volunteer.’ You click on that, you’ll enter your Zip code and it takes you to the Volunteer Connection, which is our internal database.”
On the website, users will be prompted to complete a background check and fill out a profile to determine what programs they might be best suited to volunteer for. A mix of in person and online training programs is also available for local residents to participate in — something Mr. Dominguez believes has allowed more volunteers to get involved.
Red Cross courses include first aid and CPR training, AED training, Basic Life Support, babysitter training, smoke alarm installation and other skills. To learn more visit redcross.org/local/new-york/take-a-class.
Financial donations fuel the Red Cross’ ability to provide services free of charge for those in need. To donate to the organization, visit redcross.org/donate.