Sandy Shirey for Athens:Glimpses of Home

Recalling a lifetime of service

Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)
May 29, 2008

Clara Barton, clad in long skirts appropriate to the era, stepped over bodies that littered the hot and bloody fields, searching for live ones who needed help. Known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” she had tirelessly persevered through whizzing bullets, personal illness, and endless soliciting for donations to increase scarce emergency medical supplies.

This determined woman overcame her childhood shyness to provide relief in times of war, crisis and disaster, and finally found success in the year 1881, at the age of 60. Through much persuasion, the American division of the Red Cross was finally born. Working well into her 70s, and not leaving her executive post until age 82, Clara Barton lived nearly 10 more years before her death from pneumonia at 91.

It is Barton’s legacy, strong, true and determined, that Sandy Shirey has strived to emulate. “Clara Barton cared more about giving that service to people than anything,” says Shirey, executive director of the Athens County chapter of the Red Cross. “She wanted to see what people needed and get people rolling to do it, and that’s been my approach in 23 years. Plus, she was really feisty and would fight for what she wanted, and I will do that, too.”

From the moment she set foot in the Athens chapter of the emergency response, disaster relief and humanitarian services organization in 1985, Shirey’s simple focus has been “what are we here for?” while working to make a difference in others’ lives.

Yet she has inspired and aided countless southeast Ohioans with fierce dedication, no matter the season or the hour. “It is a huge job; I won’t kid you about that,” says Shirey. “I’ve really devoted my entire life in 23 years to the Red Cross. I’ll admit that and people know it.”

As with Barton, 23 years was exactly enough time for both women to prepare to move on. Shirey, 65, after unprecedented volunteer recruitment, award-winning blood drives and personal sacrifice, is retiring from her position as director.

“I feel that it is time,” she says.

Though she will remain as a disaster volunteer, she is heading into a different territory of need. She will work part-time for the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development (COAD), recruiting and training low-income seniors as foster grandparents in the schools and as companions in other seniors’ homes.

“I want to keep working in volunteerism,” says Shirey. “You are either born with it, or it is promoted by your upbringing. I guess it was my path. Though I strayed a little bit, I finally got to the right thing.”

Here are some benchmarks in Shirey’s life of service:

• As a child in the 1940s and ’50s, Shirey lived six houses down from the railroad tracks. Men would ride the rails and come to the nearby houses searching for food. Says Shirey, “I was instructed by my mother that if a gentleman asked for food, I was to fix him two ham sandwiches and a big jug of coffee with a lot of cream and sugar in it.”

• In the third grade, a disabled child needed help, so Shirey didn’t think twice about helping through tutoring.

• The middle of the night once found Shirey sniffing the air in confusion. She could hear flames crackling above her head, and smelled smoke. One son had already vacated his room due to the smoke and noise from the attic. “It was 1 or 2 in the morning and the Richland (volunteer) Fire Department came and saved our home,” she says. “I was really impressed.”

• A fire broke out on Court Street. The flames consuming the building didn’t captivate her as much as the service of a man she knew who worked for the Red Cross. She watched him set up a shelter and begin to provide for the firefighters. “He was going to get them coffee and snacks because they were going to be working this fire for a long time,” she says. “That really made me aware of the Red Cross. Then over time, I began paying more and more attention to it. It’s in the news almost every day.”

IN 1985, SHIREY WAS STILL cutting commas out of wax layouts in the wee hours of the morning for last-minute changes to The Athens NEWS. Fresh out of graduate school with a master’s in journalism/public information, she had already covered stories of social needs in the county, from a rape trial to local hunger to the Glouster Community Center’s need for a cooking stove (and receiving one because of her article). “It just gave me satisfaction to be doing those things,” Shirey recalls. “I was taking a direction into service. It was always there.”

Shirey proposed to write a story about Lucille Smith, then director of the Red Cross, who was retiring after nine years. Shirey remembers walking up the steps of the then North Congress Street location, about to change her life. In learning about the job, she fell in love with its goals. Says Shirey, “After I wrote the story, I came back a couple days later and handed her (Smith) my application. She was pretty surprised.”

The rest is history.

“I don’t know how we functioned in that place,” she says of the cramped house that is now a student rental. “Because if you set your work down and walked away for a minute, someone else’s work would pile on top of it. A couple cars could park there, but you’d get stuck and have to ask four other cars to back out before you could leave.”

In the beginning, quick learning of the ins and outs of the job complemented her ability to take charge. “Once I learned what needed to be done, I could handle a variety of tasks and I was raring to go,” she says. “I saw myself handling a lot of the things on my own because we didn’t have a lot of volunteers. I would cook sloppy joes for the bloodmobile and work the bloodmobile.”

In 1998, a donation from a former volunteer allowed the purchase of 100 S. May, a former Columbus Southern Power/AEP building. “We have a full parking lot, meeting rooms and the volunteers can have their own desk,” she says. “As a result of having a better facility, we have far more disaster volunteers than we had before.”

THE ATHENS COUNTY CHAPTER of the Red Cross serves Athens, Vinton and Gallia counties, providing basics in disaster relief: food, shelter, clothing, medication, and comfort. Disaster Education, Armed Forces Emergency Communication, Health and Safety Education, and Blood Drives are also components of Red Cross services. All could not be accomplished without the physical and monetary support from volunteers and other donations.

“You go ahead and give relief, and at the same time you are telling the public what you are doing so that they will help you pay the bills,” says Shirey.

Fundraising, and alternately, constant accountability, is essential to keeping the organization steadily afloat. Everything is donated, and the organization is efficiently run on a shoestring. As a private nonprofit organization, it must document every penny earned and spent. Unlike Clara Barton, who was reputedly a poor administrator, Shirey is matter-of-fact about this necessity. “If you don’t keep your books, then you don’t have a good organization.”

The Red Cross Web site proudly states, “Volunteers are the Red Cross.” Every facet is sustained by the steadfast aid of volunteers. “A volunteer helps people, wants and enjoys doing it,” says Shirey.

A preliminary list of regular volunteers to call upon in times of need consists of a tight-knit core group of about 60, all willing servants under Shirey’s care and leadership.

Her success is attributed to allowing people to work on what they are interested in, giving them the leeway to make decisions to recruit and train others, and to take the lead in their area of work.

“It’s like a little army,” Shirey says of her volunteers. “One of the reasons I’ve been so successful in recruiting volunteers is because I give them lots of attention, and it becomes like a family.”

Volunteers accomplish a majority of tasks, ranging from writing checks, vacuuming, changing toilet paper, setting up shelters, gathering receipts, and manning the hand radio when cell phones fail in the deep parts of the county. “We don’t ask anyone to do anything that we won’t do ourselves,” says Shirey.

She claims that one cannot be demanding of volunteers, but she is known for her subtle gift of persuasion. “By lightly putting forth the idea,” she says, “people will jump in if they want to. If people appreciate what we do, they will come through and donate or give blood or volunteer.

“Throughout the course of a normal day, I am the hostess of the office,” says Shirey. “I like the planning the best. I just love to plan things to the fine detail. When people are willing to pick up on each aspect, and it works like clockwork, and we can quickly get out and serve those people, then that’s very satisfying.”

A typical daily routine includes e-mail communication with the regional office, national conference calls and organizational meetings. “I know a lot of people hate meetings,” says Shirey, “but I say, ‘Let’s not call it a meeting. Let’s just get together to figure out what we’re going to do and let’s just do it.’”

The office is staffed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day with mostly volunteers, and only two fulltime equivalent of paid staff — Shirey and two part-timers.

IN HER MEMORY, TWO county disasters stand out as the worst.

March 1997 brought historic flooding to Amesville. Subsequent flooding in June 1998 was “6 feet deeper than historic,” according to Mayor Frank Hare.

Shirey remembers that people needed to be rescued from second-story windows. Response had to be split into two areas of service. Shirey stayed up all night in an elementary school shelter. Extensive follow-up occurred in visiting homes, providing for needs, and subsequently, fundraising.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita occurred in New Orleans, but affected Athens County in unexpected ways. Outpourings for offers of help meant extensive training and deploying of volunteers, plus gathering equipment they would need for aid. The room was filled with volunteers needing instruction, and Shirey had to explain the difficulty of the mission. Not liking to turn anyone away, she also realized the danger and intensity of the assignment. Evacuees poured in as well with basic emergency needs. This also required major fundraising.

The end of June is Shirey’s estimated departure. Her advice to whoever takes her place is simply this: don’t forget what the Red Cross is here for. She says it’s too easy for an agency to focus on staff, salary and structure instead of core values. She feels satisfied with what she has accomplished, though things have not always been perfect. “I won’t be kicking myself, saying ‘Oh my gosh, I never got that done.’ Unless I don’t get my desk cleaned off,” she adds, laughing.

ON WEEKENDS, SHIREY HAS the energy to break for a moment of solace in a pine grove off the side yard of her house. The birds sing, and she can tell where the deer have been. She tries not to think about work as she enjoys the scenery.

She believes the 23 years she put into the Red Cross has grown her personally, equipped her with many skills, but also satisfied her need to do something worthwhile. She doesn’t believe in retiring and staying at home. As long as she is able, Sandy Shirey will never stop living a life of service.