Attended event: Friday, July 18th, 2025 08:00 AM-2:30 PM, American Red Cross nwfl Pensacola chapter Okaloosa County Home Fire Campaign, Crestview, FL 32536

 John Thomas Winskas Attended Event:

Friday, Jul 18, 2025 09:00 AM-12:00 PM, American Red Cross nwfl Pensacola chapter Okaloosa County Home Fire Campaign, Crestview, FL 32536 

• Kelly Banks gave me a ride from home at 8:00am to the American Red Cross nwfl pensacola chapter building.
• we arrived at the American red cross Pensacola chapter building at around 8:30am.
• Met with/ rendezvoused with the American Red Cross youth group and Kelly drove pariticipating volunteers to the Crestview elementary school for the Okaloosa County Home Fire Campaign.
• volunteers & staff unloaded the fire alarms & event supplies from the back of the American Red Cross traverse.
• Kelly and Samantha divided the American Red Cross volunteers into 4 teams of 4 or 5
• I was put in charge of group 4.
• supplies were divided between the 4 teams and maps were given of streets/ territory for each group to cover.
• American Red Cross Volunteer groups were instructed to walk according the highlighted paths/ territory and to knock on each door.
• I led my group the opposite direction of where I was supposed to go following a group south instead of north and mirroring group 3 on the opposite side of the street ringing doorbells/ knocking on doors, handing out information packets to households both if they were present and if they weren't,
• met one home occupant who after finding out our american red cross affiliation directed us to walk to the garage in the back of his home.
• What appeared to be a classic volkswagon with the american red cross logo was located in his garage.
• the owner said it was a replica
• but it was cool nonetheless
• Shortly after being shown the American Red Cross volkswagon buggy I looked at the map I was given and figured out we were on the wrong street and that my group and I were supposed to be on the opposite side of the elementary school about half a mile way.
• I notified the group (that we were mirroring), that we might have accidentally helped them place informational packets and knock on doors in their neighborhood.
• I directed my group back to the elementary school
• when we arrived back at the elementary school I had one of my group memebers help me figure out where we were supposed to go, the group member helped us navigate around the elementary school to the correct street  on the opposite side of the school from parking lot where the groups started from.
• We walked to our street/ territory and began knocking on doors.
• we noticed that there were red cross pamphlets hanging on some of the doors and as a group arrived at the conclusion that there was another group that had already covered the area.
• We reversed our path and began walking the opposite direction with the intention of covering the other side of the path/ territory.
• I handed the territory map to the helpful group member mentioned before (who seemed to have keen navigation instincts).
• I assigned him navigator duties and abdicated my own duties to him deferring to his expertise.
• under the new navigator's direction 
• we covered 2-4 blocks knocking on doors and leaving information packets and door placards for the houses that had no one present before being called back to the elementary school parking lot.
• we gave away a total 1 fire/smoke alarm to one household.
• After arriving at the elementary school parking lot I had a bottle of water a packet of peanut butter crackers, a bottle of water and 2-3 donut holes.
• I handed out bottles of water to whoever needed one.
• We waited for the other groups to arrive back from their paths, routes, territories and waited for their transport to arrive.
• After their transport arrived Kelly, the other volunteers from the nwfl pensacola chapter ( Cam, Anye, Anye's twin brother will have to forgive me as I forgot his name) and I went back to the ARC nwfl Pensacola building in the traverse.
• Kelly drove us first to the Crestview fire department to drop off a container of smoke alarms and met with a couple members of the Crestview fire department.
• We took a photo before leaving.
• Kelly then drove us to chick-fil-a
• We each received 2 chick-fil-a sandwiches I ate one saved one to give to my father when I got home.
• After arriving at the american Red Cross nwfl Pensacola chapter building I helped unload the traverse along with the other volunteers.
• Kelly then had me load the traverse with items and material needed for the American Red Cross shelter Simulation in Milton that would be held the next day.
• Kelly gave me a ride home from the American Red Cross nwfl pensacola, FL building around 2:00pm
• I arrive home at around 2:30pm
• I confirmed that Kelly would be able to give me a ride to the American Red Cross shelter simulation/training the following day at 8:00am