Published: July 01, 2009 08:29 am      

Berea graduate to head local Red Cross chapter

A Berea College graduate who worked the past two years as a Red Cross manager in Parkersburg, W.Va., is the new executive director of the Daniel Boone Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Katie Sulfridge, who graduated from Berea in 2003, started her new job Monday.

“My husband and I started volunteering for the Red Cross soon after we got out of graduate school, and we got hooked,” she said.

She started volunteering in 2005, the year that hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast and sent refugees to such distant states as West Virginia. Sulfridge said she helped with an emergency shelter set up for 300 people displaced by the storms.

“The opportunity of making a positive difference in the lives of people who have been affected by disaster made a big impact on me,” said Sulfridge, who earned a master’s degree in mass communications from Marietta College in Ohio.

The volunteers and staffers she met working for the Red Cross “have been the best friends I’ve ever had,” she said.

Two years after becoming a volunteer, Sulfridge joined the Red Cross as a full-time employee, directing disaster services as well as service to military families for the Mid-Ohio Valley Chapter of the Red Cross in Parkersburg.

“Because my husband and I both graduated from Berea College, coming back to Madison County is a homecoming of sorts for us,” Sulfridge said.

Both she and her husband also have family connections to the area.

The Daniel Boone and Mid-Ohio Valley chapters have some similarities, Sulfridge said.

“The Daniel Boone Chapter is a bit smaller. It serves seven counties rather than nine, but its demographics are similar to the Mid-Ohio Valley Chapter’s,” she said.

When Sulfridge became director of emergency services for the Parkersburg-based chapter, it had a volunteer disaster-response team in only one county. When she left, however, four were in place.

She hopes to replicate that success in the Richmond area.

“One of my first goals will be to develop a core of volunteers in each county,” she said.

In addition to Madison, the Daniel Boone Chapter serves Garrard, Jackson, Lee, Lincoln, Owsley and Rockcastle counties.

Sulfridge will be one of only two paid employees of the Daniel Boone Chapter.

Currently five volunteers and one intern operate the chapter office on East Main Street.

“Every Red Cross chapter depends on volunteers to do its work,” she said.

She also plans to work on developing the chapter’s fundraising base.

“Each Red Cross chapter also depends on local donations,” Sulfridge said.

During his time with the chapter, interim director Dwayne Edwards negotiated emergency shelter agreements for five locations in Madison County and six in Lincoln County.

Sulfridge said she will seek additional shelters and recruit a volunteer team for each.

“We’ll start with small steps, and build on the foundation created during the Daniel Boone Chapter’s long and distinguished history,” she said.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.