SEATTLE — Washington state's American Red Cross is asking for your help Tuesday night — calling for more volunteers.
Alyssa Higgs isn't employed at the American Red Cross — but lately it sure seems like it. For two years, she's been managing volunteers deployed to disasters from inside the call center in the Seattle office. That's where we met her Tuesday.
"In the last 45 to 50 days we've had close to 200 local Red Crossers working disaster operations," said Colin Downey, with the American Red Cross.
As a result, Higgs told us, her 20 hours a month or so have become "well over 100 hours in the last six weeks."
Scroll down to continue reading
Trending headlines
- Family has to pay to get their dog back from Humane Society
- Man snaps haunting photo at 'The Shining' hotel
- Frustration in Bonney Lake over 'staggering' water bills
- 13-year-old charged with murder in Everett shooting of teen, 14
- Doctor charged with sex crimes at Bremerton clinic at center of women's lawsuit
And remember, she isn't employed there. Higgs is also a volunteer.
"I don't think of it as free hours because if I wasn't working full time, I would probably be deployed," she explained.
Like Higgs, not everyone has weeks to commit to a deployment. Yet since August, there has been an unprecedented need to deploy, stretching the agency thin.
In just the last two months alone, the American Red Cross in Washington state has responded to six major disasters: four hurricanes, one mass shooting and one deadly wildfire.
That doesn't include a large-scale local emergency.
"There was an apartment fire in SeaTac that displaced several people," Downey said. "We opened up an emergency shelter for folks impacted like that."
He says that effort required 30 volunteers, and the organization needs more; 94 percent of the work the nonprofit does is done by volunteers like Higgs.
She can't get on a plane to Houston or San Juan, but she can help those who do — and that's just as important.
"Because that's my real job really: making sure the people we are sending out are prepared for what they're facing," Higgs concluded.
Cox Media Group
