EUGENE, OREGON/NORTHWEST INDIANA - The Executive Director of the American Red Cross in Northwest Indiana has been sent to help wildfire victims out west. Kristin Marlow-Kellemen is currently serving in Salem and Eugene, Oregon, in helping with the response to what is locally being called the "beachy creek fire and the holiday farms fires."
"Technically my role on this disaster operation is something that we call elected official liaison role, and my role is to work with the elected officials, the government agencies
here in the disaster response areas, the areas effected," Marlow-Kellemen says. "And in this case in Oregon it is a statewide operation, but we're working at the county level because some counties were greatly effected, some counties were devastated and some counties are providing support services for those who had to evacuate from areas of their counties."
Marlow-Kellemen says currently there are 10 people from the Northwest Indiana chapter of the American Red Cross who are deployed out west. She says when she left Northwest Indiana, there were 105 Indiana Red Cross volunteers in the western states assisting the victims. Marlow-Kellemen is set to return to the Region on Friday, to resume her role at the American Red Cross in Northwest Indiana.
