From Roadside Assistance to Fire Site Assistance

By Jerry Blitefield and Wendy Swift

Since signing on with the Red Cross, volunteer Brian Butterworth has grown into many roles and has committed himself fully to the mission. In July of 2022, this inspired and inspiring Red Crosser agreed to sit down for an interview.

In 2011, Rhode Island native Brian Butterworth was a college student who also worked full-time. He wanted to volunteer with the Red Cross but couldn’t fit volunteering into his busy schedule. However, in December 2021 he was “happy to revisit things and go fully through with the process,” Brian says. “It turned out pretty well.”

When he first began his service, Brian says he “tried to get [his] hands into as many areas of the Red Cross as [he] could” to learn about the many aspects of volunteering and determine what was the best match for his skills and experience. Currently, Brian is the logistics coordinator in Rhode Island, overseeing the fleet of vehicles and facilities. He also serves on the Volunteer Council and the Mission Capacity Committee, volunteering, on average, forty or fifty hours a month while working full-time with AAA.

Brian recalls his first volunteer action on New Year’s Eve 2021. He was part of the Disaster Action Team (DAT) responding to a Multi-Family fire. Four families were displaced and a total of nineteen people were impacted. The situation was very dynamic, “but seeing the compassion of my fellow volunteers convinced me that I made the right decision choosing to volunteer for the Red Cross.”

Five months later, in May 2022, a four-alarm fire severely damaged a Newport hotel. Thirty-one individuals were long-term residents of the hotel, and many of them had lost everything in the fire, including passports and work visas. Brian noted that “the response the DAT team coordinated within just a couple of hours was truly impressive.” He remembers how appreciative the clients were of the Red Cross’s assistance, which included helping to ensure they were able to replace their important documents.

Brian is a lifelong learner. When he finds an opportunity to take a  new Red Cross training class he promptly signs on and looks for opportunities to volunteer in that newly-learned role. “I like a challenge. I like to learn new things.”

Since joining the Red Cross, Brian has been surprised by the extent of services, connections and referrals offered to people in need. Before becoming a volunteer, he didn’t know that “we are there in the good times, before stuff happens, and maybe even keep bad stuff from happening.” Brian was happy to learn that the Red Cross installs and replaces smoke alarms. He didn’t know about the Sound The Alarm national campaign before he joined as a volunteer.

Above all, Brian wants to help people in their time of need whether that need results from a  home fire, a flood, a hurricane, or a tornado. “We tend to interact with people at a very stressful and overwhelming time in their lives, I like to think the Red Cross brings hope in those dark times.”

Brian Butterworth exemplifies the kind of selfless spirit that permeates the Red Cross across our areas of service. If you would like to join Brian and other volunteers like him, visit The American Red Cross today and become a volunteer.