Volunteers support wildfire evacuees at Sisters High School

Sisters High School has served as an evacuation site for the Akawa fire for almost a week, providing shelter and resources to approximately 100 people.

The Red Cross and Salvation Army are supporting evacuees, with the Red Cross operating five shelters across Central and Eastern Oregon to assist those displaced by wildfires.

The Red Cross works in coordination with county emergency management to establish these sites, ensuring affected individuals have access to safe shelter, meals and other community resources.

Morgan Schmidt, executive director for the Red Cross for Central and Eastern Oregon, stated, “It's an honor for us to be able to open these at the request of county emergency management. When we set up to make sure that folks have a safe place to go for shelter and for meals and other community resources when these fires are happening.”

The Salvation Army has been a crucial partner at the Sisters High School evacuation site, serving more than 50 meals every lunch and dinner since Thursday.

Alfonso Juarez, a ministry leader for the Salvation Army, highlighted the organization's commitment to displaced families. “We are here to serve,” Juarez said. “And, and we are just so honored to be here and especially, you know, to serve families that are being displaced and this situation. We want to provide them a hot meal and a bottled water or juice and just to let them know that they're not alone, that we are here to support them and and that we here to give them a hot meal.”

This effort has amounted to approximately 450 meals provided by the Salvation Army.

Schmidt also praised the dedication of volunteers supporting these critical operations. “We're really lucky at the Red Cross to have a volunteer team that is dedicated and generous with their time,” Schmidt said. She noted that about 1,000 volunteers are deployed nationwide for various disasters, including floods, wildfires and typhoons. These volunteers are community members assisting their neighbors.

While the Red Cross does not currently accept physical donations, the Salvation Army has requested donations of water bottles and juice boxes for children at the shelter.