By Betty Wagner

Retiree Connection volunteers offer important services to Red Cross retirees. They help renew relationships or contacts with former Red Cross colleagues, help take advantage of services and products and other benefits, and advocate in negotiating the system and resolving retirement-related problems.

Formed about 12 years ago by a small group of retirees from Southern and Northern California, Oregon and Washington State, the Retiree Connection has developed and expanded.

Today, while every so often a “connection” is requested, most of the work done by the volunteer group manning the phone messages is related to information and referral for retiree benefits, untangling frustrating breakdowns in communication about these benefits, and once in a while, assisting an elderly retiree through a confusing time in their lives.  As the years have passed, problems related to working through electronic tools such as websites, emails, etc., have lessened as our retiree population becomes more used to dealing with these tools. In addition an excellent ARCRA website is becoming more and more used by the retirees.  But there are still occasional issues that we are called upon to address, and retirees who still aren’t skilled at these electronic tools.

Retiree Connection volunteers have added some tasks, one of which is to pick up the ARCRA office calls and handle those that fall into our area of expertise, passing on the others to our ARCRA Administrator.  This hasn’t added a large load to the weekly duty, and Retiree Connection volunteers are happy to be able to help out.

Now, the Retiree Connection is looking into other ways to add services to our retiree population, such as doing mini surveys and forging better partnerships with local Red Cross chapters and area offices.  The Retiree Connection looks at extending the volunteer team from the original San Francisco Bay Area team to a more nationwide group. Meanwhile, the group of six Retiree Connection volunteers, including two from the original group, chaired by Helen DuBois, continues to take the messages left from our fellow retirees, lending them a hand with their problems and concerns. You can reach a Retiree Connection volunteer by calling 1-800-738-2724.