By Anna Kumor, Red Cross Volunteer
Jo Barsenas makes a life of serving the armed forces alongside her enlisted family members. “My dad was a veteran. He was a three-time purple heart award. My son is an army veteran. My husband’s a Navy veteran. And I have 9 nieces and nephews currently serving. I’ve come from a military home! My whole family! And I thought, what better to do than volunteer with the Service to the Armed Forces.”
“When I retired from working in the Navy, the first thing I did was join the Red Cross Service to Armed Forces (SAF) the very next day.”
Jo is tech savvy and manages the Hero Care Case Management System across the Central California Region. Jo explains, “this is a person needing assistance from the Red Cross, for service members needing a Emergency Message sent to their Command, Financial Assistance or other services the Red Cross offers to the Active Duty, Retired, or Veteran.”
Jo trains new volunteers on the system and manages the database for accuracy so that all the information is inputted correctly. Thanks to Jo’s tireless efforts, she ensured over 1,600 cases were submitted error free. Her efforts directly contributed to her team achieving the 2nd highest customer satisfaction percentage in the nation. This work and more, led to her being nominated and awarded for the Pacific Division’s Exceptional Volunteer of the Year Award Winner and Clara Barton Humanitarian Leadership award.
“I love what I do, and I’ve committed in my heart to it,” Jo shared. “That’s what makes it so easy for me to work every week.”
Another Red Cross resource available for the families of military members is the Hero Care App. The Hero Care app is a user friendly resource that makes it easier to locate and communicate those who are deployed and to arrange transport back home for family emergencies. The Red Cross can help connect families after an illness or death of an immediate family member or a significant life event such as the birth of a child. When a service member or their family member initiates an emergency message, Red Cross staff work with the family and appropriate professionals, such as doctors and nurses, to verify the emergency. Emergencies include the illness/injury or death of an immediate family member, as well as birth messages. Once initiated, this verified message is provided to the command, enabling the service member’s commander to make an informed decision regarding emergency leave.
As a caseworker who follows up with families after they have an emergency, she shares, “I hear the saddest stories, and I hear the happiest stories, but when it comes down to it, they’re all the same family, just different places.”
You can also often find Jo at pre-deployment gatherings at the Port Hueneme Naval Base to encourage service members and their families to download the Hero Care app and input their information. She says, “I push the Hero Care app constantly, especially if they’re deployed… because, say your grandmother died, and we have to spend two days looking for you, that’s two days earlier you could have been home.”
Red Cross SAF is available to military families, retired military and veterans. If they are homeless or need financial assistance, the SAF finds resources for them. Jo recalls a case of a young military wife, 18 years old and pregnant, whose husband was deployed. She didn’t know anyone on the base and didn’t know where to get a doctor. Jo called the volunteers at that base to help and was relieved to hear, “they called me a week later and said, OK we got it, she’s good now.”
Jo knows firsthand the difference Service to the Armed Forces volunteers can make.
“I love the Red Cross. They supported my dad during the war when his leg was amputated, they telegraphed my mom to give her information every step of the way, where he was and how he was doing. I have one of the telegrams. And I treasure it.”
“My mom always told me since I was little, ‘The Red Cross is the best thing that ever happened to me’ and I guess that stuck with me,” she tearfully shared. “I thought this is the way to pay back, so I’ve been doing it (SAF) since 2015, nine years.”
Jo’s granddaughter recently surprised her by setting up a Red Cross blood drive at her school in Portland with her Red Cross Club. “I went to the drive in an attempt to donate blood as I wanted to help those in need and because I always remembered helping you at Red Cross and how much it meant to me,” her granddaughter told her. The family tradition of Red Cross service continues. Jo says, “I couldn’t be more proud.”
This National Volunteer Week, the Red Cross is inviting community members to support military children and families alongside the Red Cross. Learn more here.
Red Cross Central California Blog 