Local Red Cross leader bids farewell

WASILLA -- For more than six years, Sally Anderson has led the Mat-Su Branch of the American Red Cross as volunteers responded to both local and national disasters. Last week, ARC volunteers sent she and her husband, Jack, off for a long vacation.

When Anderson was hired in August 1997, she began as part-time program coordinator for the Mat-Su branch of Southcentral Alaska chapter of the ARC. It was the first time the nonprofit had its own office and staff in Wasilla, having previously been run out of longtime ARC volunteer Gordon Taylor's home.

But it didn't take long for the community to recognize what an asset a Red Cross office could be.

Within a year, Anderson was working full-time at the office. In the next year, she said, the office needed an assistant. Recently, she accepted the position of field operations manager and began traveling around Southcentral Alaska more often, overseeing Red Cross work in Valdez and a Kenai branch of the Southcentral chapter.

Six years later, the office has a full-time staff of two and about 30 volunteers and Anderson said it's time to take some time off. She and Jack recently sold their home and are beginning a trip that will take them across the Lower 48 before depositing them back to Alaska next summer.

Anderson said they plan to travel down the West Coast before heading to Florida and circling back to arrive in Alaska next summer.

Looking back, Anderson said one of the highlights of her career was taking part in national disasters. They were often difficult, she said, but they helped instill a big-picture view of how the organization operates and what its volunteers can accomplish. Maybe more importantly, the assistance provided was felt immediately.

"Anytime we get to really do hands-on stuff," Anderson said, she enjoyed it.

And, leading a chapter that was new, every response was a learning experience.

"We wanted to go out and be used as Red Cross volunteers, but we were scared to death to go because we didn't know what was expected of us," Anderson said of the chapter's early days. But they forged ahead and learned.

Although the chapter was still in its infancy during the Miller's Reach fire, when the Helmaur Road fire happened on Lazy Mountain in 1999, they responded with help for the more than 300 firefighters called out to the fire, and with help to the displaced families. They were in Turnagain Arm after avalanches claimed the lives of several in Southcentral Alaska in 2000. They've responded to apartment fires in Anchorage and the Valley and ran a shelter in Anchorage to feed and house travelers stranded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks grounded planes. They helped set up a shelter after the earthquake last fall and another during the March windstorm that whipped across the Valley and Anchorage. And each time, they've learned more about how to better respond.

"Every one of those experiences was neat, because it gave us confidence," Anderson said. "It's just a good group of people, it really is."

It was apparent at the surprise barbecue Sunday afternoon that the feeling was mutual. Anderson and her husband were greeted with hugs and sent off with tearful words of encouragement and joking envy -- and plates full of food contributed by volunteers and several local businesses, including Save-U-More, Mat-Valley Meats, D & A Shop Rite, Carrs/Safeway, Wal-Mart, Hostess Bakery, Kentucky Fried Chicken and E & E Automotive.

While the Andersons head out in their motorhome, management of the Southcentral Alaska Chapter of the American Red Cross are narrowing down the list of applicants to step up as director. A decision was expected to be announced by the end of this week.