By: Brittany Whitlow
Webster-Kirkwood Times
Friday, November 21, 2008
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Dan and Lois Flippen have been Red Cross volunteers since 1996.
photo by Diana Linsley
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When floods, fires and other natural disasters such as Hurricane Ike strike the country, it's rare to see a senior couple arrive on the scene to aid in disaster relief. But Dan and Lois Flippen of Kirkwood aren't typical senior citizens.
Dan, 80, and his wife Lois, 77, have been Red Cross volunteers since Dan retired in 1996. He worked for the U.S. Army as chief of the construction division in the St. Louis District until 1985, when he retired to open his own construction consulting firm. In 1996, he closed his company to volunteer for the Red Cross with Lois, who is a housewife.
"I decided it was payback time — it was time to start giving back," Dan said. "We like meeting and serving others."
Lois, too, was pleased with the decision. She said volunteer work has given the couple more time together.
"I was happy when he decided to retire, but I told him, 'I'm not gonna' sit at home and make your lunch every day!'" Lois laughed.
The couple's main responsibilities as Red Cross volunteers involve running kitchens and shelters for victims of natural disasters. Though they are often responsible for feeding and sheltering thousands of people at a time, they are still able to recall individual people whose lives they have touched.
While doing mobile feeding during a flood in Cedar Hill, Mo., a boy came up to them and wanted to know what they were preparing.
"I told him, 'barbecued pork steaks,' and he said, 'Oh, boy!'" Dan said. "It was his 12th birthday, and the night before he had dreamed he was going to have barbecued pork steaks for his birthday."
During that same disaster, Dan met a woman whose husband told him that his depressed wife wasn't talking and wouldn't eat. The last day of the mobile feeding project fell on Mother's Day, and the Red Cross bought flowers for the volunteers to deliver to all the mothers as they said their goodbyes.
"We had given the lady the flower, and as I was getting ready to walk away, I told her to hold out her hand," Dan said. "I took my pocket cross and laid it in her hand, and she said, 'How did you know? I had one and I lost it in the flood.'"
The Flippens are always willing and ready to help people — even when there are no people to help. When Hurricane Hanna swept across the Southeast, they opened up a shelter in St. Louis for displaced victims. Though the shelter stayed open for a couple of weeks and had the capacity to hold 2,000 people, no one showed up.
Dan and Lois have traveled many places outside of Missouri with the Red Cross, including California, Texas, Georgia and even Florida when Hurricane Katrina hit the Sunshine State and then devastated New Orleans.
While away, they always stay in touch with their community via their church, Kirkwood United Methodist Church. Dan organizes blood drives at the church three times a year. He also serves on a reconciliation committee, which was formed after the Kirkwood City Hall shooting last year to work with the Meacham Park community.
"Our goal is to foster better understanding and relations between all of us," Dan said.
He said Kirkwood is still coming to terms with the deadly Feb. 7 shootings at city hall.
He and Lois were good friends with Councilwoman Connie Karr, who was running for mayor when she was killed in the shooting. He said Karr served as an inspiration.
"I remember the last thing I said to her," Dan said. "She asked if we were going to vote for her, and I said, 'No!' I was only kidding, of course. We were going to vote for her."
The Flippens received Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder's Senior Service Award in 2005. Last summer they ran two shelters and a kitchen for 18 straight days without a break.
The couple are finally taking some time for themselves, having rented a 10-bedroom house in South Carolina where they will gather with their four children and five grandchildren to celebrate Christmas in January. The family gathering will coincide with Lois' birthday and the couple's 60th wedding anniversary.