Cross Country

When Alaska Airlines Flight 261 plunged into the Pacific Ocean, Delio Perez jumped into response mode, organizing nurses and mental health professionals at a hotel near LAX to comfort arriving families of the 88 on board who perished.

As an American Red Cross volunteer for 29 years, Perez, 69, is always ready to provide emotional support, medicine, blankets, shelter, food, glasses, even dentures, wherever and whenever they are needed.

“When the call arrives,” he said, “a lot of adrenaline starts rushing.”

Perez met with one of the first families arriving from Mexico in Los Angeles the night of Jan. 31. Multiple members of some families died on the doomed MD-80.

“Some moments,” Perez said of his long volunteer career with the Red Cross, “are worse than others.”

But Perez takes pride in knowing that his gentle Cuban voice or strong, stable hands have helped so many. His interest in the American Red Cross was piqued when his now-grown daughters chose the organization to fulfill a volunteer community service requirement in high school.

Since then, Perez has assisted in disaster-relief efforts close to home, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He also has assisted victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons throughout the nation and in places such as Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

In 1997, he and his crew went door-to-door on the island of Guam when typhoon winds up to 175 mph destroyed several hundred homes.

“Everything was destroyed,” he said. “And most of the roofs of the houses had blown away.”

In between working to prevent the spread of infection within a devastated 10-block area, he and his crew helped a family put the roof back on their home.

“Any way we could help,” he said, “we did.”

Disaster-relief trips like these would often take Perez from his Northridge home and his job as a registered nurse at Encino-Tarzana Medical Center.

He used to use up his accrued vacation or sick days to serve. But since retiring two years ago, he’s now on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

His commitment was recently recognized by the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles. Last month, he received the Ona Marie Chaidez volunteer of the year award, which honors outstanding local volunteers.

Perez has worked in nearly every aspect of the local chapter. In addition to his disaster-services work, he has also been involved with providing flu immunizations for seniors, Special Olympics, developing a nationally recognized youth in disaster services program and serving as an instructor in the organization’s HIV/AIDS education program, which provides information about the disease to the Latino community.

“I’m lucky,” he said. “God provided me with a profession that I can do good and I can help.”

Perez also is the first point of contact for new volunteers interested in everything from providing emergency relief to stuffing envelopes.

It’s up to you now, he tells newcomers. Volunteers can do as much or as little as they want.

For his part, Perez hopes to continue his volunteer work as long as he can.

“My daughter tells me that if I stop, that will be the end of me.”

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The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton in 1881 after the Civil War. Funded entirely through donations and staffed mostly by volunteers, services are free.

The American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles serves 34 cities in Los Angeles County, including the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys and Burbank.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Red Cross, call Jessie Thompson at (213) 739-5246.

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