Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.
BATTLE CREEK, MI — Karen Wosje’s training as a volunteer with the American Red Cross has prepared her to assist in areas throughout the United States that have been impacted by natural disasters.
The Marshall resident says she has chosen to address such disasters closer to home in Calhoun County. She is concerned that the potential dismantling of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) by the
end of 2025 will put increased pressure on the American Red Cross and its local affiliates to step in to assist in filling the void if FEMA is shut down.
“I want people to take note of the fact that the Red Cross is going to have to take a higher level of responsibility considering the ifyness of FEMA’s future,” says Wosje, who has been volunteering for 15 years with the
American Red Cross of Southwest Michigan.
The regional affiliate serves Allegan, Calhoun, Cass, Berrien, Branch, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren counties. Already this year, these counties have experienced severe weather disasters, including a major snowstorm in January, numerous tornadic activity and torrential rains, which have led to flooding in some areas.
Fires remain the most common disaster situation responded to locally, says Justin Kern, Executive Director of the American Red Cross of Southwest Michigan. In 2024, he says Wosje and her fellow volunteers responded to fires at 53 households in Calhoun County that impacted 143 individuals.
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CourtesyJustin Kern of the American Red Cross (left) was joined by Maria Graniela and Marian Guzman of Voces, as well as Teresa Allen (far right) of Charitable Union during a lunch conversation at the disaster preparedness training.“In the last two years, we’ve seen fast-developing tornadic instances and our volunteers were making sure people had food and other essentials in the midst of power outages, most recently in the outlying areas of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo,” Kern says. “Last year, we were providing this same assistance to people in Kalamazoo and Portage after tornadoes went through.”
Kern and Wosje say the Southwest Michigan affiliate is always in need of people who are willing to be trained to respond to these and other disasters at the local, state, and national levels as Red Cross volunteers.
In mid-June, the American Red Cross Disaster Training Institute hosted an intensive, three-day preparedness event at Kellogg Community College’s Regional Manufacturing Technology Center in Battle Creek. The training was funded through a $31,000 grant from The American Red Cross-Calhoun County Chapter/Bernice Sackrider Volunteer Forum Fund, one of several funds administered by the
Battle Creek Community Foundation (BCCF).
Thirty-five of the 70 participants were Red Cross volunteers, staff, and partners from Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. Representatives with
Voces and
Charitable Union, nonprofits headquartered in Battle Creek, were among the participants.
The training event happened a few weeks after tornadoes in May occurred in Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties. Participants learned how to effectively respond when a natural disaster strikes by establishing safe shelter, providing meals, and other resources to disaster clients. They also received information about assessing damage and the needs of residents impacted, according to the BCCF.
“Anytime there’s a large-scale disaster, someone from Michigan is almost always going,” Kern says. “We’ve got a number of people who have extensive training and the ability to go into these disasters. Our folks in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor go out pretty regularly.”
Wosje, a retired researcher with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, says when she signed up to volunteer, she wanted to work locally.
“I wasn’t interested in responding to hurricanes and large-scale operations. I wanted to stay in my county where I respond mostly to home fires and sometimes damaging storms and flooding,” she says.
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CourtesyThe American Red Cross disaster training institute welcomed 70 volunteers, staf, and local partners to an intensive, three-day preparedness event.Although these disasters, when they happen, never look or feel the same, the care and assistance the Wosje and members of the Calhoun County Disaster Assistance Team provide remain consistent. Typically, she and one other team member will respond to the scene of a house fire right away or within 24 to 48 hours. Their job is to get the individuals impacted through the first 48 to 72 hours, and ensure they have a place to eat and sleep, and clothes to wear.
“The people that we see are in an acute stage of being scared,” Wosje says. “They’re wondering where their pets are and if they’ll ever be able to live in their home again. The loss of a pet is traumatizing for them. The hardest part is trying to help them understand that there are resources available because in the moment, they’re so traumatized.”
Wosje used to think it was hard to get up at 2 in the morning and drive to a fire, but admits that “your own personal discomfort” is forgotten when, as a volunteer, you’re the one constant for victims of these fires.
“I’m fully aware of the fact that some people can’t process things in the moment, including gratitude,” she says. “This is nothing that any of us would take personally. If you’re going to volunteer for this type of work, you can’t take things personally. We all have our roles, and we do our very best.”
The payoff goes beyond dollars and cents
Ninety percent of the Red Cross’s work is volunteer-driven, Kern says. In addition to disaster relief work, volunteers staff blood drives and assist members of the military, among other duties.
In Calhoun County, 84 volunteers worked almost 28,000 hours in 2024. This number includes the DAT.
“That team has a hardcore group of dedicated folks,” Kern says. “Some of them volunteer 30 to 40 hours a week, to 10 hours a month. We are making the space for people to fit in. There’s lots of wiggle room there. They get together and work out their schedules for the next month.”
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CourtesyAmerican Red Cross Disaster Training Institute provided training materials for those who attended the disaster preparedness training at Kellogg Community College.The vast majority of volunteers involved in disaster relief are older adults who are at different points in their working lives, which gives them more flexibility and opportunities to volunteer.
This demographic remains strong for the Red Cross’ Southwest Michigan affiliate, Kerns says. However, the organization, he says, is seeing a generational shift that is calling for creative ways to provide opportunities for people to volunteer with the Red Cross in locally known disaster areas.
In 2024, the climate crisis mounted an overwhelming toll on people in the U.S., who relied on the American Red Cross for relief and care as they faced the country’s second-highest number of billion-dollar disasters ever recorded, says a 2024 article on the organization’s
website.
“Disasters have become so relentless that our volunteers no longer mobilize around seasonal outbreaks — now, they respond nonstop,” says Cliff Holtz, President and CEO of the American Red Cross. “This new reality is beyond anything that we’ve experienced before, stretching the capacity of every organization involved. In the face of the growing frequency and intensity of these events, families are counting on the public’s generosity to be there with help and hope when the next disaster strikes.”
Kern says the Red Cross needs more people to be there to respond when disasters are happening locally and around the country.
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CourtesyAmerican Red Cross Disaster Training Institute provided training materials for those who attended the disaster preparedness training at Kellogg Community College.“This is not a political issue for us. It is a reality that the climate crisis is something we’re acutely affected by in our work,” he says. “At the end of the day, this demands of us that we build a stronger infrastructure and move around the country to respond to these weather-related disasters, which are hitting with more ferociousness.”
Click here to learn about
volunteer opportunities, or call 269-353-6180.