Last year, volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) improved the health and safety of their communities through more than 830,000 hours of service. In celebration of National Volunteer Month, and this, National Volunteer Week, we are highlighting just a few of the more than 300,000 volunteers who have made the incredible work of the MRC network possible.
Hendricks County MRC, Danville, IN
Gail Douglas, a medical volunteer with the Hendricks County MRC, has served with the MRC for more than eight years. As a retired nurse, Gail sees volunteering with the MRC as a way to continue putting her decades of professional experience to use for the community. She has served around 525 hours as a volunteer mostly in vaccination clinic time, but is also very active in the unit’s recruitment and Stop the Bleed education, which has reached all the schools in the county. Gail described her role as a vaccinator for COVID-19 as “exciting” and takes pride in being able to connect and put people at ease during the process. She’s thankful for the variety of exercises the unit has practiced for and completed over the years. Gail advises those considering volunteering to “just get into it—you’ll find your niche. There’s almost no way the MRC can’t embed itself into the community.”
Maricopa County Department of Public Health MRC, Phoenix, AZ
Jan and Steve Hertzfeld with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health MRC have served over 890 hours as volunteers with their unit. Steve, a retired RN, has served in both medical and non-medical capacities. In recent years, he worked to support COVID-19 response, beginning with distribution of PPE and education around mitigation strategies. He went on to help with flu vaccination and later COVID-19 vaccination. Steve calls the unit’s response to COVID-19, “tremendous.”
He advises other volunteers to be flexible and just do what’s needed to help get things accomplished—“you’re really doing something to help society.”
Jan, a retired public health professional, “loves being part of the MRC.” As a non-medical volunteer, she has served in a variety of roles including registration, traffic control, scribing, PPE delivery, and “wherever needed.” Prior to the pandemic, she assisted with health fairs and awareness-raising events. Jan calls her experience with the MRC “phenomenal” and “energizing.”
She advises those considering volunteering with the MRC to “take a breath, listen to leaders, and participate.”
South Central Pennsylvania MRC, Mechanicsburg, PA
Lynda Graves, a retired family doctor, has been a volunteer with the South Central Pennsylvania MRC since the pandemic started. She has served as a vaccinator and educator helping with events large and small—from clinics that served 6,000 people a day to more one-on-one work through the unit’s homebound vaccinations. As a volunteer, she was part of a team of two traveling throughout the region to deliver flu and COVID vaccines to those who were homebound—“a need no one else was able to fill.” She’s impressed with the unit’s responsiveness, organization, and ability to use everyone’s talents to “do something that the community needed.”
