The Cardonas to the Rescue : Red Cross Volunteers Arrive as Family Team

Ray Cardona of Placentia is often among the first to arrive at a disaster scene. Often as not, his wife and their three children who live at home will be right beside him, or at least somewhere nearby.

Each member of the Cardona family--from Ray to the youngest child, 10-year-old Gilbert--is an active volunteer for the American Red Cross. The other members of the family team are his wife, Lillian, and their two daughters, Diane, 17, and Denise, 15.

Red Cross volunteers respond to disasters and emergencies by providing food, clothing and lodging. The Cardonas, who are among the more than 400 people who make up Orange County’s larger “family” of Red Cross volunteers, are unusual in their contribution to disaster services, agency spokesman Harry Huggins said.

“We have other family teams (throughout the county) in services such as blood service, communications and health and safety services,” Huggins said. “But the Cardonas are probably unique from the standpoint that their daughters and son respond to disaster cases with them. I don’t know of any other whole families that do disaster casework and follow-up services like they do.”

All Have Taken Courses

“Their whole family is involved in disaster preparedness,” Huggins added, noting that all five family members have completed Red Cross classes in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said.

Ray Cardona, who holds a full-time job managing a self-service storage facility in Placentia, is the senior volunteer in the family, with seven years of Red Cross service. But family members say the dedication to the cause is shared equally by everyone.

‘Helping Other People’

“I’m pretty glad about what we’re doing because we’re helping other people,” said Gilbert, who became a Red Cross volunteer at age 5 after months of tagging along behind his father at disaster scenes. Gilbert has earned a five-year pin, his own uniform and a Red Cross identification card by working at the food supply stations at disaster sites.

Similarly, Denise and Diane, volunteers for more than four years, decided to lend a helping hand as a result of their father’s dedication to the Red Cross. “It was just something he did and I appreciated it,” Denise said. “I thought it would be something neat to do because I just wanted to help people. It makes me feel good to help. And I think it is kind of neat that we can make it a family thing.”

Satisfaction of Helping

Diane added: “I get a lot of thanks from people I’ve helped and the satisfaction within myself from being able to help someone else. I think there are many ways people can help, and being involved with the Red Cross is one of them.”

Denise and Diane help in food supply lines, blood drives and occasionally perform crisis intervention by comforting disaster victims at the scene.

As a volunteer supervisor for his district--which consists of Placentia, Fullerton, La Habra, Brea and Yorba Linda--Cardona makes sure that volunteers are properly trained in doing paper work and disaster assistance. “Most of all, I make sure people are helped, no matter what,” he said.

Ray Cardona’s view of his volunteer mission is a straightforward one: “The Lord has put us here so we can help others. And that is what we’re going to do. . . .

“Even though you see a lot of grief and heartache out there, you’re able to go out there and help start putting the pieces back for them. This way we’re able to give something back to people.”

Spotted Smoke

Three weeks ago, Ray, Denise and Gilbert were leaving the family’s two-bedroom apartment on their way to church when Ray spotted smoke coming from the home of Ronald Winters in the 600 block of Twilight Street, just three blocks away.

All three headed immediately for the scene, arriving before some Fire Department units. Ray and Denise began disaster relief, while Gilbert monitored the two-way radio in his father’s truck.

“I have a reputation for being at the right place at the right time,” Ray Cardona said.

Two months ago, Ray was presented the Certificate of Merit award, the highest award in the Red Cross for saving another person’s life. Cardona was credited with saving the life of an 18-year-old automobile accident victim on a freeway early in the year.

The victim, who had been unconscious and lying in the middle of the highway, stopped breathing shortly after Cardona arrived at the scene. “I knew I had to do something,” Cardona recalled, “so I gave him CPR. I felt like I was doing CPR for hours and hours before help arrived.

‘Knees Like Rubber’

“When I got up, my knees were like rubber. I just felt fortunate. . . . The Lord put me there at the right place at the right time. Boy, was I scared, though.”

Lillian Cardona’s approach differs somewhat from the rest of the family. She does most of her work “behind the scenes because I don’t like to be seen.” Most often, when a disaster strikes, Lillian is the one who gets on the telephone to round up volunteers.

“I volunteer my time because I just like helping people,” she said. “The Lord has not given us the (financial) resources to help others, but he has given us the means to use someone else’s resources to help. God allows us to bring comfort to others by being able to be there through an organization like the Red Cross that helps those in need.”

A self-proclaimed “pack rat,” Lillian said she often collects discarded household items (kitchen utensils, picture frames, lamps and pieces of furniture) in case others need them.

“I clean them up and offer them to disaster victims who have nothing,” she said. “They can use them to start all over again.”