WRNMMC, Bethesda, Md.   –   Joan Rolf comes to Walter Reed every Tuesday and Thursday as an American Red Cross volunteer to serve the Medical Evacuation program, also known as MEDEVAC.

MEDEVAC is a critical service responsible for transporting service members and their families by air from foreign destinations to Walter Reed for care. Rolf now runs point for the volunteer segment of the program, which she began assisting in 2014.

“My husband is retired military, and two of my children were born here, so if I’m going to donate some time to a community, this is a great option because it’s my community,” Rolf shared.

Rolf and her family have a history of volunteering, as she had been a Red Cross volunteer while her family was stationed in Japan, and her sons served as volunteers at the Walter Reed Red Cross Office during high school. When Rolf and her family returned to the Washington, D.C. area after being stationed overseas, she decided to continue to serve the Red Cross outside of her working hours since Walter Reed was close by.

One of the important services Rolf provides to the MEDEVAC program is assembling bags for patients. The bags contain comfort and essential items such as soft blankets, a map of the base, pen and paper, toiletries, and other personal articles one might need while staying in the hospital. She also provides comfortable clothes that might be requested by patients or family members, such as sweatshirts, pants, shirts, and socks. All these items help to make the service members and their loved ones feel taken care of while in the hospital, which can be stressful.

“You’re trying to help people who are not having the best day—they have ailments, have been sent from overseas, and maybe do not have family over here,” says Rolf. “If we can give them what they need and be available to make it just a little bit easier on them, I think it’s a good thing to do.”

Rolf states that the MEDEVAC program is well-organized, and volunteers stay in close contact with the MEDEVAC office.

Rolf has even had the opportunity to interact with some of the patients once they have been transported to Walter Reed, providing her memorable moments of shared humanity.

“I was talking to one of the Soldiers in an ambulance who was injured,” recalls Rolf. “I have three boys, so I was able to easily ask him some questions without being intrusive. You look at the patients and realize they could be your own children, so you want to treat them with respect and warmth.”
“Sometimes, the patients in need of Red Cross assistance can be much [younger.] Once, a mother came and her baby was being MEDEVAC’d [here], which is always heartbreaking, so I sat with her until all of her support got here.”

Rolf stresses that she’s happy to serve the vital MEDEVAC program regardless of any face time she might receive with patients or MEDEVAC officials. She feels that if she and other volunteers are providing the program what it needs, an impact is being made.

“It’s not about somebody seeing you and saying, ‘Thank you.’ It’s about you saying to yourself when you go home, ‘OK, I did something good today’,” she said.