Robin Sullivan’s very shy Aunt Caroline found a way to contribute to the Red Cross that suited her personality. She drove thousands of miles for the organization’s blood services program in Norfolk, VA, something she could do without having to engage with strangers. Despite kidney disease, she volunteered for 25 years until she died seven years ago.
It was an inspiration for Robin, who, along with her work colleagues, volunteers for the Red Cross in Loudoun and Prince William counties.
“Even when she was sick, she was volunteering,” Robin says. “The Red Cross turned out in droves to her funeral. That’s when you saw how beloved she was.”
Robin, 56, was further moved to help by her encounters with the Red Cross at disaster sites. Her husband, Kevin, and his brother, Tim, own Paul Davis Restoration of Northern, VA, a general contractor that provides emergency services to properties that have been damaged by fires, floods and other disasters. The company has 65 employees, including Robin and seven other family members.
“To see how the Red Cross brings total calm in the middle of chaos,” Robin says, “is a very moving experience.”
Robin recalls a house fire in Manassas, VA last fall. The family, two parents and three children, had managed to get out safely but everything they owned was destroyed. The children were crying and the family huddled together trying to comfort each other. The Red Cross arrived and arranged a hotel for the family for three nights, until their insurance took over.
“The Red Cross pulls up and they have blankets. They have water. They have everything,” Robin says. “You could see a sense of calm come over the family.
“They are servants,” Robin adds, “honest-to-goodness true servants. They are highly capable people with servant hearts. They are dedicated and kind. And they really help to bring calm to a chaotic situation.”
When Kevin and Tim Sullivan moved to new offices three-and-a-half years ago, they created a training room that seats 50 people. They built it thinking they could use it but that it could also serve charities, such as the Red Cross. The organization holds all of its Loudoun County training sessions, including CPR, babysitting and disaster relief, at the office. Robin says the Red Cross uses the room five to eight times a month free of charge.
Last fall, Robin and her family hosted their first blood drive in the room. They promoted it through social media and their own networks. The Red Cross brought “everything, everything,” Robin says, even background music. It was a joyous event, she says. A few weeks later, the Red Cross sent a thank-you note telling them they had saved more than 80 lives. Robin was so moved she signed up to do two blood drives a year.
“We were shocked when they told us,” Robin says. “It was really gratifying.”
Robin and her colleagues also volunteer for the Red Cross home fire safety campaign called Sound the Alarm. Its goal is to reduce home fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent by 2020. To do this, volunteers visit at risk neighborhoods, providing fire safety education, outfitting homes with free smoke alarms, and inspecting existing smoke alarms to ensure they work properly.
“You’re in the home talking 20 minutes,” Robin says. “We leave not only making a friend but knowing that we’ve helped to make a whole family safer. It’s a terrific feeling.”
Robin lives with her husband and her dogs, Bowie and Cali, in Hamilton, VA. She has three children, all 20-something redheads. She counts her blessings, she says, among them the Red Cross.
“We are blessed to be part of this community and have the opportunity to work with the Red Cross,” Robin says. “We look at this as an absolute privilege."
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