Within an hour of professing his willingness to help, volunteer John Slegers was handing out storage bins, water and comfort kits to residents cleaning up what was left of their tornado-damaged homes in the town of Wheatland. This was his second day reaching out to the community as a Red Cross disaster volunteer.  “I get a sense of accomplishment from helping other people,” he says.

John’s regular volunteering job is as a driver for Red Cross transportation services. Two days a week, he travels to the Racine office from his home right across the Illinois border so he can jump in a Red Cross van and take local residents to their medical appointments in Kenosha.  “Most people are very appreciative,” he says of the people on his route.

John began volunteering for the Red Cross in the summer of 2004. He simply walked into the Racine office and said he wanted to volunteer.  He was looking for something to do in his retirement years. Within seconds, John was surrounded by three staff members who welcomed him into their Red Cross family. 

He started working on the computer for disaster services and driving Red Cross vans for transportation services one day a week.  Since then nothing has slowed him down, and his simple entrance into the Red Cross has led him to a town in Kansas to help with sheltering residents who needed a warm place during the winter storms, to numerous residences in Wisconsin where he provides for peoples’ immediate needs as a member of the Disaster Action Team and, most recently, to areas of Kenosha County where he worked in disaster assessment and bulk distribution.

He may not have slowed down as a volunteer, but John does relax on his days off. He loves to unwind with a game of golf or a few hours of fishing.  He is so devoted to golf, he has been known to brave tornado warnings and snow to hit the course. As long as the temperature is above freezing, John and his friends are pulling out their clubs to play a few holes.

Since his retirement, he has also taken an interest in tying his own flies for fishing. John has a stockpile of items to use for his lures and is proud to report that he has caught quite a few fish with the lures he created.

His real pride, though, is his wife, two children and grandchildren. He beams when he talks about his two grandchildren, lovingly nicknamed Princess Megan and Mr. Trouble, who occasionally sleep over at his house.

“They love to get up early,” he says about his grandchildren. “When they’re up, everyone in the house is up.”