A house fire seven years ago. A stranded woman with her three kids. A father with a dog. A kind man there to help.

All pieces of a puzzle. All connected to Melody Stevenson.

It was a Friday afternoon in February. Melody was home early from work with her kids, and was relaxing in the bathtub. Her father relaxed in his apartment a floor below.

Suddenly, smoke came pouring up the stairs. Luckily, Melody, her father, three kids, as well as their two dogs and a cat, all got out alive. Flames licked the house from the basement. Melody was wearing only a bathrobe.

Today, she can laugh about it. “I was eternally grateful,” she says of the events following the fire.

Red Cross Disaster Action Team member Tom Barnum arrived, and found that Melody’s family had nowhere to go, and had lost most of their clothing, which was in the laundry room where the fire started.

He found Melody and her kids a place to stay, and provided food and clothing. Melody’s dad didn’t want to leave his dog, and he refused help, though his apartment was smoke-filled and damaged. So Barnum got to work and found a place that would allow the dog and Melody’s dad.

“He went above and beyond to help us,” she remembers. “I promised to give back.”

Five disaster responses, thousands of people helped and countless volunteer hours later, Melody has made good on her promise. When a disaster hits locally or nationally, she is ready to go. She has helped people affected by Hurricane Wilma, flooding in Minnesota, tornadoes and fire in Wisconsin and flooding in Missouri.

“Anything I do for the Red Cross, I love,” she says. “To me, helping others is a vacation. I get so much fulfillment from what I do.”

Melody’s way of giving back is to set up a shelter and help run it when people need a place to stay. While on the job, she always has a smile on her face and warm words for her clients---some of whom have found simple ways to give back.

Melody fondly remembers a client who stayed at her shelter in Palm Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Wilma. “She would bring me iced tea every day,” she remembers. “We would drink tea and talk.”

Bad memories from a fire seven years ago have been replaced by three years of Red Cross service by a dedicated woman with a desire to help. “I’ll work 24 hours a day to help,” she says. “I love every minute. It’s my vacation.”