(PHOENIX) April 19, 2010 – Grand Canyon Chapter volunteers, including seven from Phoenix, were honored at the annual Volunteer Recognition event held at the Black Canyon Conference Center in Phoenix on Saturday, April 17.

The Granada East Elementary School Red Cross Club members received the Outstanding Youth award which is given to a young person who demonstrates leadership in improving a program that supports their community and the Red Cross Mission. Led by Davida Guse for over 13 years, the club has raised more than $10,000 for the Red Cross to help disaster victims and the Measles Initiative. This year, the children made holiday cards for military members and sick children. Plus, they raised more than $1,600 dollars to help people in Haiti.

Kathy Jacka received the Bill Bombeck Disaster Award named for the chapter’s most distinguished disaster volunteer. Kathy fills a variety of roles at the Grand Canyon Chapter. She manages the North Valley disaster responder team and also takes on-call shifts to help disaster victims at all hours of the day. Kathy also manages the chapter’s national deployment office and squeezes in time to work in the accounting department. During the winter storms in January, Kathy managed the accounting for the national relief operation. She is ever present and ever helpful!

Linda Griggs, Helen Lindsay, Esther Rivera received the Exceptional Volunteer award which is given to someone who has gone above and beyond their volunteer position.

Linda supports the chapter’s volunteer recruitment process. She also manages data entry for a mere 1,000 volunteers. She makes volunteer badges and logs their hours (on her day off).

Helen spent a week at the Red Cross shelter in Black Canyon City supporting the storm victims in January. She also responds to local disasters 24/7 and dispatches Red Cross teams to disasters.

Esther is the chapter’s lead Call Center Agent recruiting and training new volunteers. When the Call Center is activated she ensures people across the country get the Red Cross information they need. After the Haiti earthquake, Esther managed the team that responded to 400+ calls.

Rita Audisio and Gilda Genova received a Rookie of the Year award which is given to someone who has been a volunteer for two years or less and has done something outstanding.

Rita moved into the special events department and has turned things around in a few short months. She has developed systems and standards to manage and track the chapter’s many special events. She also launched a volunteer training program. Plus, she has incorporated a new website recruitment system.

Gilda is an ASU student who did her internship with the Emergency Services Department and has such a passion for the Red Cross she stayed on as a volunteer. Gilda is now a Client Casework Supervisor. She is also a certified instructor. The young fireball is flexible, too. She has gone from disaster training to deploying disaster teams to client casework in a single morning.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of this organization, making up 96-percent of our workforce. During our last fiscal year, volunteers gave more than 160,000 hours of service saving the chapter $3,135,706 dollars!