LIHUE — During emergencies, volunteers can make all the difference.
Kauai’s American Red Cross counts on nearly 90 people to help during times of crisis. Dedicated volunteer Larry LaSota was chosen as the organization’s Volunteer of the Year for 2017.
“Larry did a lot of work over the past year with Red Cross, and he always was upbeat and excited to help out,” said Padraic Gallagher, Kauai’s Red Cross director. “Plus he always told the best stories.”
LaSota has been with the America Red Cross on Kauai for nearly six years, volunteering most of his time as the government liaison in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The job requires him to respond at a moment’s notice when there is inclement weather.
“Sometimes it can be 12-hour shifts during potential disasters,” LaSota said. “A lot of what we do is the planning and strategy, mostly during hurricane season.”
LaSota works as part of the Red Cross EOC liaison team that coordinates with county agencies during emergency events. He has helped out on numerous flash flooding events with the Hanalei School shelter, and also worked during Tropical Storm Iselle in 2014 and Hurricane Darby in 2016.
“Red Cross is one of the few volunteer organizations that are in the Emergency Operations Center,” LaSota said. “We make sure that everybody has a place to stay and that they are taken care of.”
It was soon after Hurricane Darby that LaSota took on a much larger role with promoting the chapter’s centennial. He envisioned the idea of selling commemorative Hurricane Iniki T-shirts to fund a campaign to buy portable generators for the Kauai Chapter of Red Cross.
“We had to go through many hoops to get permission to actually have an independent fundraiser just for Kauai,” LaSota said. “So I took it on as a personal thing, and I raised the money and made the donation.”
He raised $2,500, enough money to pay for expenses and buy three portable generators that could be used in shelters around the island to supply emergency power.
“We know we need to have one available for the office, because if we lose power the head needs to be there for all the arms to do everything else,” LaSota said.
LaSota has also played a large part in increasing the public awareness of the Hawaii Red Cross on Kauai. Not only did he make himself available to staff Community Disaster Education events, but LaSota used his personal business connections on Kauai to secure Red Cross public information displays at popular community events like the county fair, sunshine markets and festivals.
“A lot of what we do is provide information on preparedness, which I think is essential,” LaSota said.
LaSota worked with several advisory council members to get radio interviews to promote the Hawaii Red Cross Centennial, the Home Fire Campaign and the Pillowcase Project, which helps prepare youth for emergencies.
“A lot of what we do is not just react in an emergency situation,” LaSota said. “Last Saturday, we had two house fires. Red Cross is right behind the first responders for every house fire to make sure those people have a place to stay and have food.”
“The giving out of smoke alarms is making sure we don’t have to be there for the fire,” he added. “That took a lot of work to get those donations of hundreds of smoke alarms just for Kauai.”
LaSota was even able to convince his wife, Elaine, to become a volunteer with the Red Cross and help design the centennial display at Lihue Airport.
“When you get to knowing what you’ve done has made a difference, you really are thrilled when all the pieces come together, when all that comes into place and the people are taken care of, when you’re doing public information and you know that people get it,” LaSota said.
