Husband and wife honored for Red Cross volunteerism

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Story Published: Dec 15, 2007 at 5:31 PM PDT

A man and his wife have been honored by the local American Red Cross for the many hours they've put in to help people around the country.

Local and national volunteers got together for some holiday cheer this week, and to recognize those who dedicate time to helping others.

Local Red Cross District Director Jim Caplan coordinates activities for Douglas, Coos and Curry Counties. He says George and Virginia Roth have been valuable to them, by putting their technological skills to work.

"They take care of our computers, they make sure we're hooked up to our ham radio network," said Caplan. "Things like that which are truly wonderful and extremely valuable. And all this, we don't pay them a single cent, they still come out and do wonderful things day after day after day."

The Roths travel near and far to ho help in disaster relief operations. They work on damage assessments and response technology for computers in national locations and volunteer in records and special events at the local office.

"Last month was the California wild fires and that one we did damage assessment," said Virginia Roth.

"In the Gulf Coast, they called us early that morning, we left that afternoon, got there that night and were there a couple of days before the hurricane hit," said George Roth.

The two have been to a lot of national disasters. "Georgia, Texas...Texas twice," said Virginia.

"We went to the Carolina's for Hurricane Ernesto,"said George. "We were there with supplies two days before the hurricane hit."

The Roths are retired now and say they volunteer because they simply like helping people.

"If everybody helps everybody when they need it, the world would be a better place and you have to start with yourself," added George.

"The Red Cross has become our life pretty much. We've found a new family," said Virginia.

Anyone interested in volunteering with the Red Cross can call their Roseburg office at 673-3255.

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