Last night I had the honor of attending the Joplin High School graduation, one year after the horrific tornado that tore through this town destroying homes and taking lives.  President Obama spoke at the graduation, and we cheered on the new graduates, celebrated the town’s recovery, but also remembered the lives that were lost.

As I drove through Joplin, I was stunned at how bright, vibrant and warm the community appeared.  There were new homes and restored businesses, as well as renewed energy and pride.  There were also stark reminders of the devastation – the remains of the high school (pictured above), the crumbling hospital and boarded up homes.  But what struck me most were the determination and almost a sense of moral obligation that the people of Joplin have embraced.  It’s as if they want to honor the tens of thousands of volunteers and donors who helped them and show that their efforts and generosity were put to good use. 

During the graduation, I sat in the crowd shedding many tears and thinking of all of the people around the country who supported Joplin through the Red Cross in its time of crisis.  To everyone who donated to the American Red Cross for the Joplin relief effort, I want to thank you.  You likely will never meet the people you have helped, but your generosity will always be remembered in Joplin.  It has made an incredible and tangible difference here, and it will never be forgotten.

“Since that day we monthly give financial contributions to the Red Cross because there’s going to be someone every day that needs you all’s services… You all have been a blessing to me and my family.”

You might consider home fires a seasonal threat, only wreaking havoc inside when the world outside is frosty. However, the Red Cross responds to fires all year round – helping when an inferno strikes about every nine minutes somewhere across the country. Check out our Fire Prevention & Safety Checklist to learn more.

You can take the three simple steps to protect yourself and your family from emergencies today:

1. Get a kit
2. Make a plan
3. Be informed

Video via Slate News. Hat tip to Patrice Cloutier for sending us to Todd Jasper’s blog to find this info.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We caught this piece on the Today Show this morning and had to share:

When yesterday’s tornadoes wreaked havoc throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, Lisa Rebstock was prepared. After hearing the warnings, she had only three minutes to collect her two young girls and race to the bathroom as the tornado furiously swept toward her home in Arlington, Texas.

“It was the most terrifying thing I have ever been through. I grabbed onto both kids so hard. I had no idea what was going on. When it hit our house, I heard a loud thud, a crash and all of a sudden wind was coming through our house.”

Just a week earlier, Lisa had packed a preparedness kit with baby bottles, diapers, snacks, flash lights, and everything her family would need to survive a day. The extra step she took to have this kit ready made a world of difference for the family yesterday.

We salute Lisa for being Red Cross Ready, and we’re so glad that the Rebstock family, along with many other families in the Dallas Fort Worth area, are okay!

You can take the same steps to protect yourself and your family today:

1. Get a kit
2. Make a plan
3. Be informed

• Stay informed
• Follow the tornado tips
• Follow #TXWX on Twitter
• Follow the @RedCrossDFW for Red Cross specific updates on Twitter

Like all volunteers, disaster volunteers come from all walks of life and fall into every category imaginable with regard to age, education level, ethnicity, and religion. What they share – their common bond – is the inability to look the other way when disaster strikes. Witnessing the devastation caused by natural and man-made disasters is too much for these kind and generous people to take sitting down, and so their hearts lead them to the Red Cross where they go through Volunteer Orientation, become CPR certified, and take Disaster Services Shelter Operations, Mass Care, Logistics, and Public Affairs classes.

Once trained, these volunteers can be and are contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – including in the middle of the night – to respond in support of both those affected by disasters and first responders assisting on the scene.

Volunteers see horrific destruction and devastation, but they also see hope. And that hope keeps them coming back, time and time again. Most disaster volunteers, once they’ve completed their training and deployed – either locally or nationally – for the first time, are hooked. In all likelihood you’ll find them still volunteering for the Red Cross five, 10, 20 years after their first orientation to the organization.

There’s a strange balancing act done by disaster volunteers. The desire to help, and to use the skills learned both in disaster classes and in the field, is incredibly strong. But disaster volunteers are all too aware of the fact that in order to help and to use those skills, a disaster must strike. People’s lives must be negatively affected. No one would ever wish for disaster, but when they occur, Red Cross disaster volunteers demonstrate time and time again that they are, simply and in my humble opinion, the best of the best. They walk a tightrope – surrounded on one side by their almost-burning need to help and on the other side by people whose lives have been turned upside down – with the grace and confidence of trapeze artists who’ve been atop the rope their entire lives.

I wrote last week about how I felt when disasters struck cities I’ve called home. In the first two cases (a tornado in Iowa City, IA and flooding in Cedar Rapids, IA), it was terribly difficult to sit on the sidelines. I worked for the Red Cross – but in Ann Arbor, Michigan – when both of these disasters occurred, but as the volunteer administrator I stayed put and deployed ready, willing, and able volunteers from my chapter in Michigan to my beloved Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I was a coach, working with a team of other coaches to strategically put players (volunteers) into the game (deployment and local support positions), but I wanted desperately to be in the game myself.

I also wrote last week about the recent tornados that severely damaged Southeast Michigan, another place I’ve called home. My desire to help, and to use the skills I’ve learned in disaster classes and the field, is incredibly strong. I would give anything to be there right now…with my coworkers, with my volunteers, with the people in my community who need my help.

I can’t be there, and the only peace I find is that which comes from knowing that the best of the best – Red Cross disaster volunteers – are there in my place.

And while we feel sympathy for – and in some cases even grieve for and with – those whose homes were destroyed and lives are now turned completely upside down, there remains a substantial distance between our reality and their reality. We can intellectually understand and appreciate the severity of the crisis and how devastated those directly affected must be, but that does not mean we understand and appreciate what it would feel like to stand in their shoes.

And then the day comes when your city, your town, or your street is in the path of a disaster, and your family, your friends, or even you are those who others are seeing pictures of and hearing about on the news.

A few years ago a tornado plowed through and destroyed much of downtown Iowa City, Iowa, where my alma mater, the University of Iowa, is located. Around the same time, floodwaters literally drowned downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I first began my career with the Red Cross and where my husband and I lived right after we were married.

And then last week, an awful tornado ravaged parts of my most recent Red Cross and family home outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Thanks to the Washtenaw-Lenawee County Chapter’s blog and Facebook page – where Jenni Hawes, the Chapter’s Disaster Public Relations Representative (and one of my best friends, I’m proud to share), and other team members have been posting frequent updates and links to online photo albums and media stories – I’ve been able to follow the story closely.

The images are graphic and raw and remind me how truly vulnerable we are in our relationship with Mother Nature. My immediate family wasn’t in the path of nor was my home destroyed by that tornado, and for that I am extraordinarily grateful. But my one of my towns – even though I no longer live there – was, and my Red Cross family and friends are those whose pictures and stories are now appearing on the national news.

I am grieving for and with those whose homes were destroyed and lives are now turned completely upside down, and I feel as though the distance between my reality and their reality has decreased dramatically. I can intellectually understand and appreciate the severity of the crisis and how devastated those directly affected must be, and because the disaster hit so close to home I can better understand and appreciate what it would feel like to stand in their shoes. And it hurts.

I chose to write on this topic today because if I needed a reminder, perhaps others out there need a reminder as well. A reminder to be compassionate and generous – in whatever way is most comfortable and appropriate for you – when the images and stories on the news are about people you’ve never met and places you’ve never lived. Because while they may be strangers to you, to someone else they are the world.

“Red Cross goes high-tech” - how social media aids disaster responses [NECN via NBC]

Eton radios - stay on top of those weather warnings [Pinterest market]

Water safety ads from the Brazilian Red Cross - remember, safety first! [Pinterest | see here for all kinds of safety tips]

World Water Day 2012 – The World is Thirsty Because We Are Hungry - how will you celebrate WWD this Thursday? [YouTube]

Red blood cell-shaped mini soaps - reminding us that only 1 pint of blood can save up to 3 lives [Etsy]

Nonprofit Data Visualization: a Gallery - how nonprofits show their work through pictures and graphics [Chronicle of Philanthropy blog]

Please share any suggestions for our next WWR post!

There’s a storm a brewing
The cast experiences a tornado warning – sirens and all – and demonstrates how  people who have never considered a preparedness plan react when faced with imminent danger. If anyone knows Snooki and the gang, please let them know we’ve got a simple plan and tips for them so they never get lightning in their hair.

Smoke Alarm
For the last “family dinner” the cast cooks a feast, starts a small stovetop fire, and sets off all the fire alarms in the house. They disassemble the fire alarms and later Pauly D uses them as a wake up call. Someone get these characters our cooking safety tips and please reinstall those smoke alarms.

Have any other Red Cross tips for Jersey Shore?