Iowa grandmother answers the volunteer call from the Red Cross

A dozen Iowans from the National Guard and the National Parks Service are in Montana helping fight massive forest fires. A 67-year-old grandmother from the Cedar Rapids area is also among them.Beverly Kriegel retired three years ago from the Marion schools as a health associate and never pictured herself piloting a big van into the face of fires, floods and other disasters. Now she can’t imagine her life without the Red Cross.Kriegel is driving a Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle on a 200-mile route every day from Butte. She and another volunteer are delivering water, juice and snacks to firefighters, helicopter crews and anyone else who’s still hanging around. Kriegel has four grown kids and 13 grandchildren. A grandson recently accused her of loving the Red Cross more than she loved him. She says she sat the eight-year-old down in his bedroom, surrounded by his nice furniture and numerous playthings and told him about the children who’ve lost everything in a flood or storm. She says the grandchild told her to go out and do as much as she can.Kriegel, of Marion, has been volunteering for the Red Cross in Montana since August 12th. More than two thousand people have been evacuated from their Montana homes and at least 50 homes have been lost. At least 25 major fires are burning, covering 600-thousand acres of timberland.