Red Cross honors 2 outstanding East Idaho volunteers
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — The Red Cross of Idaho and East Oregon recently honored two outstanding East Idaho volunteers for their work helping families recover from disasters.
Dianne Brush, of Pocatello, received the Roy Eiguren Award for her exceptional service in supporting the Red Cross mission. Brush is a disaster action team lead and helps Red Cross respond to emergencies in Bannock County and beyond, most of them home fires.
During the past year, Brush also filled in for a paid Red Cross staff member while he was away on a military assignment. In this role, she led Red Cross disaster response in East Idaho and also helped organize a free smoke alarm installation event in Idaho Falls last spring, making that community safer from home fires.
Brush has also deployed to disasters outside of Idaho including during historic flooding in Montana in 2022 and helped supervise a Red Cross wildfire shelter in Paradise, Mont., in August.
Brush worked for 11 years in radio and television broadcasting before starting a 30-year career with the Pocatello Police Department. While there, Brush served as a community educator and public information officer before retiring.
She has volunteered with Red Cross since 2016.
“It is difficult to describe how it fulfills my soul to help and hug a client who is a victim of a disaster,” Brush said. “To know that in a small way I have given them hope and helped them on a journey to recovery. I am grateful to the Red Cross for giving me the opportunity to feel like I still have a purpose and a contribution to give to my community even though I am retired.”
Brush also was recently selected as a runner-up for an AARP Idaho Andrus Award for Community Service.
Teresa Browning, of Idaho Falls, received the Dane Watkins Exceptional Volunteer Award, given to the Red Cross volunteer who logged the most hours in Idaho in the past year. Browning is a Red Cross duty officer, helping dispatch volunteers to local disasters and making sure families have access to food, shelter and other resources. She is also a disaster action team supervisor and helps manage software Red Cross uses in its disaster response. Browning logged 3,376 volunteer hours in the past year alone.
Browning also recently received the Presidential Lifetime Volunteer Award, created in 2003 by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation to recognize the role volunteers play in America’s successes.
"I believe every person has a duty to volunteer in the community they live in,” Browning said. “The American Red Cross helps everyone in the event of a disaster. The amount of gratitude and education I receive back from the community and the American Red Cross is a great return on investment."
She and her husband Mark own and operate two small businesses in Idaho Falls. She has volunteered with Red Cross since 2018.
