On Saturday, January 12th, the Cayman Islands Red Cross held its annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner honouring the men, women and children who have selflessly and consistently assisted the community through their service to the organisation.

The event, which is in its fifth year, saw over 100 volunteers in attendance to help celebrate and honour one another and the work which they had helped to achieve over 2012.

Since 1961, the CIRC has been assisting the most vulnerable within our islands through its four main programme: Disaster Management, First Aid/CPR/AED training, the Thrift Shop community outreach, and HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Department.

Albeit a difficult year for the organisation, 2012 saw key accomplishments in all four programmes:

The Disaster Management programme saw not only a full-on revamping of the container project, but also a nearly complete overhaul of the organisation’s communication capacity greatly increasing it’s response ability. Meanwhile, the First Aid programme assisted by providing first aid coverage to a record breaking sixty (60) community events throughout the year, many which saw multiple teams being deployed simultaneously. The Thrift Shop made significant steps towards improving its customer service capacity introducing a new point of sale system, complete with training for volunteers. And finally, the HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Programme closed the year with the launch of its child sexual abuse awareness campaign “Protection starts here”, which brought together over twenty (20) community partners to raise the profile of this taboo, yet important, topic.

The work of the CIRC would not be done without its greatest, most valuable resource: volunteers.

While a celebration of all of those who contributed their time, blood, sweat, tears and skills to the organisation, there were a few standouts within the organisation.

For the Disaster Management Programme: Roger Brown “DM Volunteer of the Year award”, Saagar Kadiyala “Increasing DM Capacity award”, and Ransford Fagan “DM ‘Hands on Deck’ award”

For the First Aid Programme: Ransford Fagan “First Aid Support award”, Louise Bailey “Volunteer Instructor of the Year award”

For the Thrift Shop Programme: Dulsey McCoy “Thrift Shop Volunteer of the Year award”, Julette Clemmings for “Shop Floor Assistance award”, and Ava Hamilton for “Consistent Cashier award”

For the HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Programme: Ben Hud and Mari Abe for “Outstanding Contributions to the CI Red Cross HIV and AIDS Department”

For general office administration: Susan Singleton “Most Supportive- Fundraising award”, Louise Bailey “Most Reliable- CIRC events award”, and Wayne Bobb Semple “Dependable- IT Support award”

Volunteer of the Year 2011 Rodan Asuncion delivered the Volunteer of the Year 2012 award to the boisterous agreement of the attendees to Mr. Roger Brown.

“Volunteers don’t do what they do for the awards,” explains Deputy Director, Carolina Ferreira.

“They do what they do for the love of their community and a genuine interest in leaving things a little better than how they found it. We know there is no way to appropriately thank them for their contributions, but there are far too many ‘thankless’ jobs out there, so at the very least we can try to let them know just how grateful we are for their commitment and that they are appreciated,” she added.

To get involved, log on to www.redcross.org.ky or contact the Programme Support Officer on [email protected] or 949-6785 ext. 29.

Caption: Volunteer of the Year 2011 Rodan Asuncion delivers the Volunteer of the Year 2012 award to Roger Brown.