Red Cross Honors Four Phoenix Residents for Outstanding Volunteer Work
Four Phoenix residents will be honored by the American Red Cross Greater Phoenix Chapter for their exceptional volunteer work helping disaster victims.
The Red Cross Greater Phoenix Chapter serves 4.8 million people across Maricopa, Pinal and Gila counties, as well as Luke Air Force Base. About 530 adult and youth volunteers are trained to use their Red Cross skills to help save lives. Volunteers assist families during disasters including house fires, flooding and forest fires. Red Cross volunteers also train people in life-saving skills, water safety, and fire safety. In addition, the Red Cross help keep Arizona’s military families connected by relaying critical messages around the world.
Winners will be honored during the Red Cross annual volunteer awards ceremony on Saturday, March 23 at the Black Canyon Conference Center in Phoenix. Learn more about the winners below:
Domenic Jones, Youth Volunteer Award
Jones, 20, began volunteering with the Red Cross in 2014 when he was a freshman at Franklin Police and Fire High School. He called new volunteers and scanned documents. He then started helping Disaster Cycle Services by washing cars, tables and chairs as well as inventory counts. After graduating high school, he continued as a Red Cross volunteer, installing smoke alarms and has installed nearly 100 alarms so far. He also volunteers at blood drives. He has donated more than 350 hours so far.
KD Kannenberg, Betty Grenig- Service to the Armed Forces Award
Kannenberg, 84, has donated more than 3,000 hours volunteering at the Luke Air Force Base pharmacy for the past 16 years. He started volunteering after retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant at Luke Air Force Base after serving 45 years in active duty and civil service. He is a welcomed face to the pharmacy team every Monday. His breadth of knowledge of the Air Force and the base’s surrounding area is very beneficial to the patients.
Doug Patriquin, The Randy Knappenberger Exceptional Volunteer of the Year Award
Patriquin, 66, is the Volunteer Partner to Lindsay Mathieson, Disaster Program Manager for the Greater Phoenix Chapter. He became a Red Cross volunteer in 2014 after retiring from the aerospace engineering field. He uses his technical and leadership skills in the Red Cross Disaster Services Technology Group on major disasters. He has donated more than 5,000 hours so far.
Marlene Medici, Bill Bombeck Disaster Volunteer of the Year Award
Medici has been a Red Cross volunteer for 29 years. A licensed professional counselor, Medici has provided Disaster Mental Health support at apartment fires, the Yarnell wildfire and a small airplane crash. Her main Red Cross service is as Chairperson of the Outprocessing Committee whose members are volunteer mental-health professionals. Committee members contact Red Cross volunteers shortly after they have returned from national disaster deployments to check on how well they are dealing with any trauma that they have either witnessed or directly participated in and that their families did well during their absence.
