This holiday season, the Red Cross is saying 'Thanks for Giving' by highlighting our volunteers. We hope you will visit our website each day until Thanksgiving, as we share inspirational stories about our volunteers, their contributions and reasons for helping our community through the Red Cross. To support their work, make a donation today.

Sadness. Joy. Hope.

Red Cross volunteer Judy Kuhlmann knows the connection between these raw emotions and floods, hurricanes and fires are quite clear, as well as her motivation for thousands of hours of service.

Being intimately involved with front line operations is nothing new. For years, Judy worked in the Milwaukee Public School system with “at risk youths.” Her daily routine revolved around dealing with situations that would send some running for cover.

For Judy, the work grounded her. From it, she learned lessons of strength and perseverance in the midst of chaos.

“I loved working with those kids,” she says with a smile. “I learned how to center myself and focus.”

Eleven years later, Judy still utilizes those skills almost daily. As a Red Cross caseworker and member of the Disaster Action Team (DAT), she meets people during some of the hardest times, when they are dealing with losing their clothes, bed and treasures---sometimes even their family members. They are devastated, lost and scared. They have nowhere to stay.

That’s when Judy arrives with her fellow volunteers. She listens to their story, steers them toward recovery. As a DAT member, she is first on scene. Often, the house is on fire, the fire department is still battling the blaze. As a caseworker, she meets with the family a day or so after the disaster has struck. Either way, the emotions are raw, the damage to the human spirit runs deep.

Such was the case in New Jersey, just days after 9/11. Judy went to meet with a new widow who could not pay her bills because her accounts were frozen after the terrorist attack. She had lost her husband, and was struggling to cope and raise her two-year-old.

“She told me she was worried about her daughter. At first, the toddler was used to her daddy being gone, so there was no reaction. Then, the little girl began to bring his picture to her. She would sooth her and put the picture back. Eventually, the little girl would bring the picture to anyone who came to the door, like ‘Does anyone know where my daddy is?’” Judy recounts. “That just broke my heart.”

Bringing comfort has led to some physically and emotionally exhausting days and moments, but Judy keeps coming back.

“I like to be on the front lines. I know I can deal with the stress,” she says with determination. “I am a good organizer.”

Her skills and her husband’s love of research have led the Kuhlmanns to volunteer for Red Cross International Services. Together, Judy and Bob seek out families and deliver messages from family members in refugee camps and war torn countries.

Their first message was to a widow who had no family. Her husband and sister had died, her son and grandchildren killed in a car accident. When the Kuhlmanns told her that her husband’s relatives were looking for her, the woman was revitalized. Suddenly, she had family and a connection.

“Every story touches your heart in a different way,” Judy smiles. “I know it sounds trite. So many people say they have been given so much and they want to give back, but really, that’s reality. That’s why you should support the Red Cross.”

The American Red Cross in Southeastern Wisconsin relies on donations of time and money so they can provide relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies in Dodge, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth and Waukesha counties. To donate your time, please visit our Volunteer page. Financial donations can be made online through our secure contribution site.You can also support the Red Cross online by becoming a fan on our facebook page and following us on Twitter.