To commemorate Black History Month, we’re celebrating Red Crossers and how they’re making a difference in the mission.
Karen Utsey was a military spouse living in California at the time when she reached out to the American Red Cross for the first time. She needed someone to intervene on her behalf and put her in touch with her then-husband and U.S. Marine who was deployed overseas. Several weeks had gone by without her husband’s pay showing up in their bank account. At home with a newborn and toddler, Utsey was growing nervous without their income stream.
Through its Service to the Armed Forces, the Red Cross is a conduit between military members and their families and facilities communications in times of emergencies.
“The Red Cross was able to connect with my husband and I was able to talk to him,” Utsey said, adding that it was a first step to resolving the pay situation. “That experience left a mark. I wasn’t familiar with what the Red Cross did for the military.
“They saved us. I was forever grateful for the Red Cross.”
Fast forward to present day. Utsey is a member of the Board of Directors for the Red Cross East Central Bay Chapter in Flint and sits on the DEI committee.
How she came to join the board has a Red Cross connection. Utsey was introduced to the chapter’s executive director Becky Gaskin at a blood drive that Utsey and her Zeta Phi Beta Sorority hosted in December 2022. Also at the drive was Sheryl Thompson, the chapter board chair and a Zeta sorority sister.
As a board member and blood donor, Utsey has come to appreciate the humanitarian reach of the Red Cross.
“It just touches everyone’s lives,” she said. “There’s so much that the organization does.”
Service to others is her motto, something she has been practicing for quite some time.
“I do that in my personal life, I do that in my sorority life, and I do that in my career,” Utsey said. “I’m blessed to be able to do that with the Red Cross as well. You never know when the Red Cross may be of service to you.”
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