By Taylor McCallum

After 36 years of Red Cross affiliation, Los Altos resident Vinnie Biberdorf has been given long overdue recognition as the 40th recipient of the annual Community Service Award. The honor, presented last Wednesday by local realtors, spotlights volunteers like Biberdorf who have made a difference locally.

As an explorer, an adventurer and a Red Cross volunteer, Biberdorf has demonstrated her kinetic energy.

En route from San Diego to St. Augustine, Fla., she guided a sailboat through the oceans of the Western Hemisphere. The Inca Trail bears fresh footprints from Biberdorf and her two daughters. She drove across the country in 2001 to map out a bicycle route from California to the New York islands. And next month, she will celebrate 50 years of marriage to her husband, John.

Biberdorf is the portrait of a renaissance woman.

First aid and disaster preparedness are Biberdorf’s areas of expertise with the Red Cross. In the late 1970s she worked diligently to get first aid education into the Los Altos, Palo Alto and Mountain View schools. The success of her work was undeniable when she pulled over to help with an accident on Interstate 280.

“A young man who looked like a freshman was administering care to a woman laying on the pavement. No one was there and it was very soon after the accident,” Biberdorf recalled. “He was doing everything he should be doing, and he showed such concern. We asked if we could help; he said he wanted some bandages. The person I was with gave the boy the bandages. He could only have taken a Red Cross course the way he put them on. He was so careful, he did everything exactly right. He had just finished a first aid course in high school. As a matter of fact, the woman did have a neck injury and he treated her exactly right. The effect it had on me was, ‘Yes, yes, it works, it works!’ “

The Red Cross first encountered Biberdorf during her college years at San Jose State University. In preparation for her summer counseling job at Campfire summer camp, she took a lifesaving course. Next, she trained to be a water safety instructor. “I was intrigued with the quality and dedication of Red Cross volunteers,” Biberdorf said.

As a young mother she began a campfire group, a program very similar to Scouts. She taught participants survival skills for the outdoors, as well as canoeing and sailing. These activities involved Red Cross certification and training.

Once her daughters were grown, she started volunteering with the Red Cross and then spent 15 years as a staff member. She retired in 1992 and immediately became a volunteer.

Indelible in her memory are two Red Cross disaster experiences. In the late 1970s, Biberdorf was sent to the site of a hurricane in Kingsville, Texas. Little did she know that this first experience of shelter management would prepare her for America’s most significant disaster 20 years later. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Biberdorf worked in New Jersey as the liaison between Red Cross headquarters and 23 chapters. Listening was the most essential skill as she uncovered problems that prevented ultimate efficiency and quality of care.

This past year, the majority of Biberdorf’s energy has been devoted to developing and instituting the Partners in Preparedness campaign - a seven-step program to handle disaster. Parents have prepared earthquake survival kits for their children to store at school.

Children know the routine for earthquake drills at school: get under your desk or a doorway. But the very homes of these families lack emergency preparation. Biberdorf works towards her dream of emergency preparedness for every Los Altos family.

When Biberdorf approached the podium to receive her award, Trish Bubenik, executive director of the American Red Cross, Palo Alto chapter, offered her the trademark gray-and-white Red Cross vest.

No one wished for Biberdorf to feel naked before the crowd of 100. Her smiled beamed and her shoulders relaxed as she slipped into the uniform of her service.

“I value and recognize the honor I receive,” Biberdorf said to the assembly of realtors, bankers, Red Cross staff, past award recipients, and residents at Michael’s at Shoreline Restaurant.

Biberdorf’s accomplishments are many, but she is the first to declare her reliance on others. “There isn’t a lone ranger out there,” Biberdorf said.

Biberdorf’s daughter, Ann Sibbet, identifies her mother as, “stubbornly determined.” The final night on the Inca Trail, Biberdorf confided in her daughters, “You know, I’d love to go to Mongolia.”

Mother’s Day was a chance for Biberdorf to relax and receive service herself, as her daughter Jean planted vidalia bulbs and Ann cleaned up the yard.

If you are interested in volunteering with the Red Cross, visit the Web site: www.paarc.org.