Editor’s Note: We’re profiling outstanding Red Cross volunteers throughout National Volunteer Week April 21-27.
By Alana Mauger
Russell Massey began volunteering with the American Red Cross in 1959 as a high school student. He worked in the reception area of pop-up polio clinics that administered the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines.
“We’d go to a school in a neighborhood and we would register the people as they came in,” he recalled. “We would vaccinate many hundreds in a day.”
He also remembers being one of around 50 high school students to participate in a week-long Red Cross leadership camp at the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.
An active blood donor since 1967, Russell’s next chapter with the Red Cross appropriately began at a blood drive after he retired at the end of 2021. He was scheduled to give blood at his church – Grace Point in Newtown. When he arrived, he was greeted by a fellow member of the congregation who was training to be a Blood Donor Ambassador.
“I asked what was involved, and I said, ‘I can do that.’ I signed up the next day,” he shared.
You can find Russell volunteering at blood drives in Bucks, Mercer and Burlington counties 2-3 times per week. He enjoys interacting with people the most and feels good about helping the collections staff.
Last December, the Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Region presented Russell with the 2023 Exceptional Biomedical Volunteer Award for Bucks County. His letter of nomination noted Russell’s “can do attitude” and his willingness to help out at the last minute.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities at the Red Cross, visit redcross.org/volunteertoday.
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