A ‘privilege’ to serve: Local American Red Cross volunteer deploys to Kentucky for tornado recovery effort

December 14, 2021|By Kevin Haas|In Local, Top Stories
Dave Boyles, a volunteer with the American Red Cross Northwestern Illinois Chapter, will travel to Kentucky to help with tornado response. (Photo provided)
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — When deadly tornadoes tore through at least six states over the weekend, volunteers here prepared to deploy to hardest hit communities.

Among them is Dave Boyles, who has volunteered for roughly a decade with the American Red Cross of Northwestern Illinois, which serves Boone, Bureau, Carroll, DeKalb, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties.

He is scheduled to depart this morning to Gilbertsville, Kentucky, where he’ll supervise a team that goes from house to house to document the damage and help the Red Cross identify families in need of additional support.

The 65-year-old retiree from Morrison has volunteered with the Red Cross for about a decade and is ready to deploy in short notice.

“24 hours is about the most you ever really get. So you just kind of get yourself ready,” said Boyles, a retired manager from Exelon’s Quad Cities Generating Station.

In Kentucky, emergency response teams are still piecing together the toll of the storms that ripped through the state Friday night. More than 70 people were killed, Kentucky’s Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. He said more than 100 are still unaccounted for.

Boyles is one of two from the local Red Cross chapter responding to the devastation, although hundreds more from other chapters are working across six states. He’ll spend the next two weeks, including Christmas and New Year’s Day, helping victims of the tornadoes.

“It’s a commitment, but it’s something I truly want to do,” said Boyles, a father of three sons and grandfather to three.

“It’s that look of appreciation and thanks and relief that comes to them when they know that somebody is there, somebody is looking out for them … I think that’s the thing that strikes me most when I talk to people.”

He has deployed as a volunteer roughly 30 times in his decade of service with the Red Cross, and about one-third of the time it has been to respond to tornadoes.

“He’s always been there whenever you needed him,” said Karen Nelson of Rock Falls, a fellow volunteer of about 20 years. “He’s very quick to learn and to anticipate people’s needs.”

While two weeks is Boyles agreed commitment, he has often stayed on longer when needed. When a violent tornado struck Washington, Illinois, in 2013, he worked in the area for five months. He spent nine months total helping the island of Saipan with long-term recovery after a typhoon made landfall in 2018.

“It’s a privilege to be at a point in my life where I can do this, not everybody has the flexibility,” Boyles said. “It’s very satisfying, it’s very rewarding, it helps balance out your life.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.