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Gayle Lundeen Prepared to Deploy with the Red Cross

New RSVP Disaster Services Coordinator is Highly Qualified

Gayle Lundeen Prepared to Deploy with the Red Cross

The latest addition to the RSVP staff is Gayle Lundeen. Gayle spent nearly 30 years with John Deere working in accounting, human resources, auditing, and process improvement. During these years, she also volunteered for a wide variety of causes. Since retirement, Gayle has become very involved in Red Cross. Her lifelong volunteer work, especially in disaster relief, makes her a perfect fit as the new RSVP Disaster Services Program Coordinator.

Gayle started life in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in the notorious “Tornado Alley” and says that may explain her interest in disaster management. She spent her college years in Iowa, earning degrees from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.B.A. from the University of Iowa. After college, she was hired at Deere and worked in Waterloo, Moline, North Carolina, and various overseas assignments. She says that Deere is a great place to work that allows employees to follow their interests, reinvent themselves in their professional careers, and provides the training they need to do so.

Gayle lives in Davenport with her husband Bill. She has a daughter, a geologist with the state of Utah whose husband – also a geologist – teaches at the University of Utah. Gayle is eternally optimistic about the future. When I mentioned that I had just turned 75, she recommended that I read an exercise book titled Younger Next Year written by 75-year-old doctor Chris Crowley..

Gayle’s volunteer experience is both extensive and varied. I’m glad I recorded our conversation, as I would have difficulty writing all of her volunteer work as we spoke. Her work as a certified mediator for Family Resources in Davenport allowed her to serve as a mediator for the Davenport Civil Rights Commission. She also has volunteered for the United Way, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Black Hawk/Buchanan County Head Start, and Black Hawk/Grundy County Mental Health Center. She also served as President of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls chapter of Institute of Management Accountants.

All these experiences will enhance Gayle’s effectiveness at RSVP, but her extensive Red Cross volunteer work will enable her to be a great coordinator. As a Red Cross volunteer, she is heavily involved in disaster response–including after tornadoes in Tulsa, Oklahoma and in West Liberty, Kentucky. She covers the phones for the Red Cross as a Disaster Assistance Coordinator.  (A couple of nights ago, I heard of an overnight fire in Cambridge and thought she was probably in involved in the Red Cross assistance there.) Gayle’s extensive involvement and dedication led her to be recently honored by the Red Cross as the Chairperson’s Volunteer of the Year for 2015. One of the things I learned from Gayle is that the Red Cross is tasked by Congress to respond to disaster. They are tasked, but not funded. Community contributions, business and private are their only source of funds.

When I asked Gayle where she wanted the RSVP disaster management program to be in the next year or two, she had a direct and straightforward reply: “I want every community in the area to know that RSVP is available to help them in planning for disasters and that we are here to provide volunteer resources to help them in the event of a disaster. I also hope they will have taken full advantage of the services we can provide.”

If you want to assist RSVP and your community in this most important effort, call Gayle at (309) 793-4425 or go to our website http://www.wiaaa.org/retired-and-senior-volunteer-program.html.