With four weeks left until she leaves for college at the University of Arkansas, Katie Marcinko-Chapman, a Clinton Prairie graduate, is using two of those weeks to help those that were in the path of Hurricane Beryl in Houston, TX. Katie says she has been volunteering with the American Red Cross since she was 13 after seeing her mom help the community in many ways. Those 5 years, or 4000 hours, have turned disaster work into her passion to be able to help those in her community by installing smoke alarms, assessing tornado damage, and now enables her to be deployed to Texas.
“I am excited yet nervous to be able to step outside my comfort zone and make an impact for those affected by Hurricane Beryl.” stated Katie. Katie is among over 450 trained disaster workers that have responded from across the country, with over 10 coming from Indiana so far. Her job will be to assess the damage of homes, which helps the Red Cross better understand the needs of the families. Currently, over 450 people are staying in the Red Cross shelters that have been set up over the region.