There are so many ways to volunteer with your American Red Cross!

The best way to find your fit with the Upper Northumberland County (Milton) Chapter of The American Red Cross is to call the office and set up a convenient time to come in and have a conversation about the lines of service and limitless opportunities to serve, in the capacity that best suits you.  Here are just a few ways that every day people make the Red Cross what it is and help us to do what we do best.

Health and Safety Instructors

These are the folks who teach CPR, First Aid and AED.  They love to meet new people, they like to travel within the region and they are willing to take a significant amount of training and stay up to the minute on new techniques and applications.  They can teach Lifeguards to earn their certification to work at local swimming pools, they can assist with one on one certification or teach up to 20 persons at a time.  They can also teach any of the courses listed below.

Our instructors must have excellent communication and public speaking skills. Training will be arranged to fit your schedule and will include the following:

CPR and First Aid Basic Course - 10 hours

Instructor Course - 16 hours

Co-Instruct first basic course - 4-9 hours

You may choose to train to teach any or all of the following:

1. First Aid/CPR/AED

2. Workplace Safety

3. Basic Aid Training

4. First Aid for Children Today

5. Babysitter Training

Disaster Services

Disaster Relief Volunteer  Here's the place for those who may not mind being on call, working with people during flood, fire and natural or man made disasters.  Driving the ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle), carrying the pager a couple of times a year or even traveling to other areas of the Country are all ways to be a disaster relief volunteer.  A significant amount of training is required, available and free.

The Disaster Action Team (DAT) volunteers respond to the scene of a disaster to provide immediate assistance to the individuals and families impacted, whether it is one person at a house fire or 100 people evacuated to a shelter because of a flood.  DAT volunteers sign up for on-call shifts and respond from home as called as part of a 2 person team. Flexible scheduling is available.  Our Disaster Action Team Members must be at least 18 years of age, have reliable transportation during scheduled on call periods and a valid driver's license. DAT members must be CPR and First Aid (basic) certified; free training is provided.  In addition, DAT volunteers must attend the following training courses which are provided at no cost.

Introduction to Disaster - 45 minutes (self-study)   Mass Care - 3 hours   Shelter Operations - 3 hours   Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment - 8 hours   Client Assistance – 8 hours

DSHR Member  here is the place for fully trained volunteers who have significant amounts of time and are willing to travel. Typically members go on deployment anywhere in the country for up to three weeks at a time.  This is a position which requires good health and a great deal of flexibility, lots of waiting to be sent to wherever you may end up on a job, lots of changing jobs in the middle of the action and some considerable hardships in terms of sleeping and eating. But the rewards are well worth it when you are the one on scene offering a meal, a place to stay and a shoulder to lean on.

Blood Donor Caller (we provide the calling list and training, if needed)

Refreshment committee chairperson- this person secures groups and organizations to provide food for the refreshment area for area blood drives

Refreshment hostess this person serves food post donation and maintains supplies for serving.

Post-donation Observer this person serves food and drink to donors after their donation.  This position and hostess can be the same person

Pre-sign Appointment manager  this person provides donors in the refreshment area the opportunity to make an appointment for their next blood donation.  All supplies will be provided for this.

Donor Greeter this person signs donors in, checks to make sure donors have identification and gives donors their required reading materials

Appointment Manager- this person manages the flow of donors making sure those with appointments get in first and the walk in donors get to donation as quickly as possible. 

Donor Escort  assists donors from waiting area to registration area and from donation bed to refreshment tables.

Cookie Bakers these persons will bake cookies on an as needed basis for various drives within our designated service area.