WICHITA, Kansas -- March is the beginning of the severe weather season.It's also American Red Cross month.
The two go together as the Red Cross is looking for more volunteers as the Kansas storm season gets underway.
"I guess it's the people's reaction that I notice they enjoy," says Jim Kuhlmann, a nine-year volunteer for the American Red Cross.
Jim and his wife Kane have helped their fair share of survivors and seen their fair share of disasters.
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy where Jim and Jane led the kitchen that made 15,000 meals a day and managed a volunteer crew of 80.
They even worked with Eli Manning, quarterback for the New York Giants.
"He actually worked in the kitchens loading the trucks, and he went out on the truck for one run, like a lunch run," says Jim.
But Jim and Jane didn't start out leading the effort.
Newly retired, they say they were looking for a way to help that involved people.
"We didn't know what we wanted to do with the Red Cross so we signed up for every kind of training, including the blood delivery and home services and the dialysis and disaster training and it hit home with the disaster training so we took all the courses in that," explains Jim.
Now with severe weather season upon us, the Red Cross is looking for more volunteers.
Jim says all you have to do is call the Red Cross.
"Say I want to volunteer in sheltering, or go out on a disaster action team as a trainee and they can just be able to go right then and there and we'll put them on a list and we'll call them," says Jim.
If people like what they experience on the ride along, the next step is to take some Red Cross training disaster courses.
People can choose from a whole list of departments to learn where they can help and figure out which area fits them best.
"It's fun to be here as long as we have, bring in some new people so they can become part of the family," smiles Jim.
You can find out how to contact the Red Cross by clicking
here.
