Volunteer of the year

By HUNTER BISHOP

Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

Being named Red Cross Volunteer of the Year is becoming old hat for the Carvalho family.

“Oh, they always make such a big thing about it,” said Laurine Carvalho, who was honored last week by the American Red Cross for her exemplary service to the privately funded disaster aid agency.

Laurine is just the most recent member of her family to earn the honor. Brothers Steve and Wesley Kahakua both preceded her as volunteers of the year. Their sister Clarissa, who died in 2006, was also a Red Cross volunteer.

“My passion has always been with health and safety,” said Laurine, whose full-time job is systems analyst with the County of Hawaii. Her close work with computers’ inner workings also makes her appreciate the contact with people that her Red Cross work affords.

“I’m in IT (information technology) so I often forget the people side,” she said. But her volunteer work with the Red Cross gets her out and about doing what she likes. “I like meeting people from all walks of life.”

The Red Cross is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides assistance to meet the immediate emergency needs of people affected by disasters. All Red Cross assistance is provided free with the support of volunteers like the Carvalhos and charitable donations.

As a Disaster Action Team leader in East Hawaii, Laurine has been sent by the Red Cross to help with national disaster relief efforts as far away as Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and American Samoa, working to help the victims of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires and other disasters.

“In places like that, I get to meet people I might never have come across,” she said. “It’s very rewarding.” She credits her husband, Lionel, whose patience and understanding allow her to leave at a moment’s notice for up to three weeks at a time when the call for help comes.

Laurine has been an active Red Cross volunteer since at least 2003. She first started to be interested in the Red Cross as a member of the Jaycees “way back when,” she said. Now she organizes and implements Red Cross response disaster plans and helps train emergency responders in Hawaii County and Kauai. She is also an instructor in classes offered by the American Red Cross — lifeguarding, first aid/CPR, and pet first aid, to name a few.

Laurine won’t even venture a guess as to how many volunteer hours she puts in, and she has two grown, married children and a couple of grandkids who also keep her busy. Recently she also earned her certification for Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), which gets her more involved in the local community. It’s more about helping the local community,” she said. “I get to know my neighbors better, (and) meet the people we live with.”

Laurine modestly takes receiving the honor in stride. “There are a lot of other (volunteers) out there that deserve it as well,” she said.

Red Cross director Barney Sheffield said the Carvalhos are extremely valuable assets to the Red Cross. “Laurine’s a great person, dedicated to helping people in need in disasters, always ready to give her all to the effort.

“We couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers, people like Laurine and her brothers,” Sheffield said. “We are blessed to have such wonderful families and people like this in our community.”

But for Laurine, “It’s just a family thing.”

For more information about the American Red Cross, visit www.redcross.org. Earlier this month the Red Cross launched an official Earthquake app, following successful launches of First Aid and Hurricane apps for iPhone and Android. Each app has been downloaded more than a million times, the Red Cross reported.