Red Cross, Writing
This is a profile on a volunteer with the Red Cross Lehigh Valley-Bucks Chapter, and how he took ownership of a Home Fire Campaign effort as his Eagle Scout service project. The story illustrates the different ways volunteers can make a difference with the Red Cross. It was written for publication in local print media.
Matt Wanson, a teenage Eagle Scout candidate, was looking for an Eagle Scout Service Project.
His father happened to volunteer for the Home Fire Campaign, an effort by the American Red Cross of Lehigh Valley-Bucks to install and test smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them. Volunteers also help families come up with home fire escape plans, and teach them about safe practices to prevent home fires.
That’s when they came up with an idea: maybe that Eagle Scout project could be part of the Home Fire Campaign.
It was a unique idea: by the local chapter’s account, it was the first time a prospective Eagle Scout would do this for his service project.
It was June of 2016 when Matt decided to do it. Planning got underway after that, and he went all in. Matt coordinated with local fire departments, which partner with the Red Cross for the campaign. He recruited volunteers to take part in the smoke alarm installation. He prepared the maps for the teams to use on installation day. He trained the volunteers on how to install the alarms, and he taught them how to help families come up with a home fire escape plan.
Matt spearheaded the chapter’s monthly Home Fire Campaign efforts for September and October with incredible success. He recruited more than 50 volunteers to install more than 400 smoke alarms in homes that needed them – thereby preventing potential fires, loss, and tragedy.
Matt’s story is just one of the more than 500 stories of volunteers with the Lehigh Valley-Bucks chapter of the American Red Cross. Day in and day out, people volunteer their free time to help make a difference in their community. Some do it by answering a phone call at 2:00 a.m. to respond to a family that has lost everything in a fire and needs help. Others do it by greeting blood donors at one of the many blood drives that take place each week. And others do it by working in the chapter’s offices, keeping the nonprofit running.
“If we relied on paid staff, we wouldn’t be able to do ten percent of what we do,” said Peter Brown, the chapter’s executive director. “Volunteers are one of the things that’s been the most rewarding here – working here every day, seeing the value of what volunteers do.”
This spring, Matt, now a high school senior, will present the success of the Home Fire Campaign events to the local Boy Scouts Council as his Eagle Scout Service Project – having made his mark in the lives of people in his community.