Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Volunteer of the Month

Michael Carigon received his award certificate and Thank You bag from United Way & Volunteer Connections staff today.  As a volunteer working with United Way programs and special projects for the last 4 years, Michael earned the special treatment he enjoyed today at the office.

Among his prizes Michael received $20 Lamplight Grill gift certificates, a new Volunteer Connections t-shirt, a MRC umbrella, and a whole bag of various goodies donated by Volunteer of the Month sponsors.

Monday, December 3, 2012

December 2012

December 2012
Volunteer of the Month

Michael Carigon

Organizations Served: Montcalm-Ionia MRC, Ionia County CERT, American Red Cross, and many more!

On a local level, Michael often serves as a CERT Leader helping to develop SOP’s, Communication Chains, and has recently passed the CERT Train-the-Trainer Course. As a Volunteer, Michael is one of the first to respond any time a team email or call-out is sent to volunteers. You can always count on Michael to volunteer to take on extra roles and projects. When the Red Cross offered a Disaster Action Team course to members of Montcalm and Ionia County CERT teams, Michael jumped at the chance to take the additional training. Since then he has moved up the chain in the Red Cross to become the Disaster Action Team Leader and the Acting Disaster Duty Officer Lead for the Greater Grand Rapids area. Most recently, he was deployed to volunteer at a Red Cross Shelter set up for people who were displaced by power outages due to Hurricane Sandy. During his deployment, Michael was working in the shelter when there was a medical emergency, responding quickly Michael started CPR and used the AED. By the time local responders arrived, the patient was beginning to come around. The cross-training obtained by this Citizen Corps Volunteer made all the difference in the world to the patient!

Disaster volunteers in Citizen Corps Programs and with the American Red Cross train themselves and others in the community to be more prepared when a large disaster hits locally. Michael has put in countless hours attending several training opportunities over the last 4+ years that he has volunteered with CERT, MRC, and the Red Cross. He was also able to apply those skills first hand when he went out on a national deployment with the Red Cross to help in Shelters in New Jersey after being effected by Hurricane Sandy.

As Michael will freely share with other volunteers, even with all his training he was not prepared for the impact a national deployment would have on himself. He witnessed first hand how local volunteers in the CERT program had worked together to establish the Shelter before the storm even hit the area, and maintained the shelter for the first 4 days before national volunteers were able to arrive and offer assistance. In Family Preparedness 101, we teach community members to pack a kit to take care of their family for at least the first 72 hours. This was proven yet again when most areas effected by the storm did not receive outside help for at least 3-5 days. The Red Cross and MRC have began working more closely over the last few years to cross train volunteers. This practice was also applied during Michael's deployment as he worked in the shelter sharing his communications skills with Amatuer Radio, his First Responder skills with the life that he saved by his quick AED Action, and his client case worker skills he uses locally with the Disaster Action Team to respond to local house fires and families in need. 

Michael is an outstanding volunteer, always willing to take additional training, learn new skills, and share what he has learned with others around him!