An American Red Cross volunteer takes part in the Veterans Day Parade in downtown Spartanburg. As the community prepares for this year’s parade Nov. 11, the Red Cross is encouraging residents to volunteer and help connect veterans with resources, support and companionship. Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross, by volunteer Joe Boals.
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Want to learn more or get involved?
Go to redcross.org/veterans
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Amid the thousands of Veterans Day events and celebrations across South Carolina and the U.S., one often-overlooked item is the fact that many former longtime servicemen and women need assistance for food, jobs, adjusting to civilian life, or sometimes just in being needed.
And during this year’s honorings and official ceremonies, members of the American Red Cross are reminding everyone that the best way to help veterans in all possible ways is as easy as becoming a Red Cross volunteer.
“More than 15 million veterans live in communities across the United States alongside millions of current service members,” said Ivan Sterpin, Service to the Armed Forces director in Columbia, S.C. “We have multiple positions people can get involved with to assist them – such as our bio-medical and disaster-action teams, blood-donor ambassadors, and service to the armed forces. In any capacity, we always need more volunteers.”
Haitian-born Vic Mustapha is one.
After serving 24 years in the U.S. Army, Mustapha began actively serving with the Red Cross in Columbia, S.C., only in July this year, but said his exposure to the organization’s services can be traced to the January 2010 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti that affected 3 million people and left approximately 100,000-200,000 dead.
In 2015, during a U.S. Army mission known as ‘Continuing Promise 2015’, Mustapha was deployed from Sept. 10-19 at Haitian Coast Guard Base, Killick, in central Haiti to run more than 14,000 survivors to Red Cross stations because “there was still that much need.”
“To be there and see the sadness, the chaos, and the impact of helping those people, especially the children, is something I will never forget,” Mustapha said. “It made me realize that the Red Cross is where I wanted to be one day.”
He added that this realization was cemented five years later when he personally needed help to recover from a disaster and tragedy in his own life.
“I had two family deaths from a house fire during COVID,” he said. “And the Red Cross came through for me.”
Today, more than 145 years after its founding and providing countless relief efforts through all wars and disasters across the globe, the American Red Cross offers a number of ways for volunteers to get involved, including:
• Hero Care Network. Operating 24/7, this service is available to all veterans needing assistance with food, shelter, aid, resources, and follow-up.
• VA Clinics. This service provides behavioral health workshops, stress therapy, anger management, and mental health aid for veterans, families, and children.
• Military-to-Veteran Network. This service provides a constant mentor who will connect veterans to monthly peer-to-peer meetings.
“The biggest need we have in Spartanburg County is just simple connection,” Sturpin said. “A lot of veterans lose that when they leave the service. And just having that connection to someone is often what they need the most that we provide.”
So if you are one of the many who attend this years’ downtown Spartanburg Veterans Day Parade, hosted by American Legion Post 28 at 4 p.m. on Nov. 11, remember that one of the marchers might be waiting to be reached by a new Red Cross volunteer…like you.
“Over the past year, Red Cross teams reached more than 1.5 million people through whole health programming and services,” Sturpin said. “This Veterans Day, everyone can play a role in helping to further these efforts.”
