Twenty tales: Lorraine Gross and Dorothy O’Donnell with the new book.
ERIN PEARSON
SHE started out helping educate children about Red Cross more than 40 years ago.
Now Grovedale’s Lorraine Gross has her many stories etched into the pages of a book celebrating 20 women who helped shape the history of Red Cross and the history of Geelong.
Ms Gross said the willingness of Geelong people to help others in need was heartwarming.
She hoped the goodwill would continue into and beyond the next 40 years.
“The one time that stands out the most was when we set up a food kitchen in the early 1990s after the fall of Pyramid,” Ms Goss remembered.
“We realised people were really hurting and very quickly we put together a midday meal service at our centre then in Bellerine St opposite the hospital.
“People were willing to do anything to help, even peel potatoes. We’d never seen them before.”
Ms Gross believed the extensive training required to join Red Cross was deterring new members.
But the effort was worthwhile, she advised.
“I recently took a person shopping to Kmart who’d suffered through a house fire. They were very stressed out but when they realised we could help get them clothes, toiletries and bedding they were just so happy.
“You see it in people’s faces. They leave as different people from when they come in.”
Ms Gross joined Red Cross in 1970, helping establish the Grovedale unit seven years later.
Red Cross member and book editor Dorothy O’Donnell said the stories provided an insight into the lives of ordinary Australians during some of the most significant events of the past century.
“The valiant women found time for Red Cross in addition to workforce participation, raising families and involvement in various other community activities,” she said.
The book, Quiet Achievers, Cameos of Red Cross Commitment, is a collection of the 20 women’s first-hand accounts of their experiences with the organisation.
