Local Red Cross Volunteer Heading to Houston

A local woman who volunteered during past natural disasters such as the Henryville Tornado and Hurricane Sandy will be deploying to Houston this weekend to assist the Red Cross with mass care efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Sherry Fagner is a former Incident Management Team member of the District 2 Task Force who now serves as the Lead Disaster Action Team member for Pulaski and Starke Counties. Fagner will be providing assistance in one of the mega centers that has been set up in the Houston area.

Several fellow members of the Indiana District 2 chapter have already been deployed to Texas to assist with Mass Care, which is an umbrella term that covers a plethora of jobs that volunteers could be responsible for once they make it to the mega centers.
“Anything you see on the news that is in a shelter, that’s what we do,” she said “Anything to do with client casework, if there’s immediate needs for people that are in the shelter, could be making sure that cots are set up, could be just about a whole range of items.”

Fagner said that the best advice she has to individuals interested in helping is to make a monetary donation to a nationally recognized charity. Money allows the organization to buy needed supplies right away rather than fishing through donated goods. Sherry’s flight leaves Saturday morning from the airport in South Bend. She will be deployed for two weeks.