Story by Anna Tran, with contributions from Mark Fleming, Brianna Kelly and Laura Nguyen

It is a special occasion when members of the community are graced by the heartfelt efforts provided by American Red Cross volunteers. One such exemplary volunteer, Laura Nguyen, is an embodiment of the strength, connection, and selflessness that defines the Red Cross.

Laura has held many titles throughout her time with the American Red Cross of Orange County, serving as a board member and Co-Chair of the Red Cross Mission Impact Committee; supporting the Biomedical Services Blood Committee; and assisting the Diversity Board Development; Philanthropy Committee and Youth Development and much more. Laura has also served as a nurse with the Red Cross, as an RN Team Supervisor assigned to blood collection operations at mobile sites in Southern California.

“The more I help, the more I want to help,” she says.

Laura credits her passion for the Red Cross with her own family story – one of perseverance and hope that took her and her family from Vietnam to the United States and changed her life forever.

When Laura’s family fled Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War, arriving at a refugee camp in the United States, she first experienced the American Red Cross. The kindness of Red Cross volunteers and the compassion of local church groups influenced Laura and her siblings’ careers and life purposes of giving back.

Laura’s American Red Cross story

Courtesy of Laura Nguyen and Mark Fleming:

It was early morning on April 30, 1975, the last day of the Vietnam War. The deafening roar of artillery followed by brilliant explosions of light and fire greeted the morning sun as it rose for the last time over the free and democratic city of Saigon. As the morning wore on and the sound of a fierce battle raged closer, my family ran to the harbor alongside thousands of other terrified refugees, desperate to escape the brutal, final onslaught launched by the communists of North Vietnam. By midday, the Communist flag of the People’s Army of Vietnam would fly over the fallen Presidential Palace of South Vietnam. By nightfall, my family and I were slowly making our way across the darkness of the South China Sea in a dilapidated fishing boat teeming with frightened souls, all wondering what might lay ahead as we huddled shivering together, staring silently into the empty blackness of the night.

I was an infant that day, strapped firmly to my father’s back as he led nine of his ten children and twelve members of our extended family to safety. In a difficult choice that no parent should ever be forced to make, he and my mother left behind my eldest brother who could not be found when the final chaotic moment to leave arrived. Ten long years passed before my parents would next see him. The Communists who separated my parents from their son and my family from our homeland had first pushed my family from their farms in the Northern city of Hanoi in 1954, to the Southern port city of Saigon in 1974, before forcing us all into the sea on that final day in April of 1975.

As we slowly made our way into the open waters of the Pacific in our steamy, overcrowded fishing boat, my parents contemplated what was to come. Though now safe from the Viet Cong, my family had no money, and our only possessions were the few personal items my parents were able to carry off in the mad scramble to escape. No member of my family had ever traveled outside of Vietnam before. America seemed as foreign a place to my parents as the moon. Yet that is where we were headed. We sailed east through the hot summer. A short stay on the island of Guam in May followed by a brief stop on Wake Island in July brought us closer to the shores of America, and farther from the only home any of us had ever known. We finally arrived at a refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas in August where fifty thousand displaced Vietnamese were first welcomed by the United States in 1975. It was in this camp when my family experienced first‐hand the dedication, professionalism, and incredible kindness of the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross served as a bridge between those of us who escaped and those like my brother who were left behind. Red Cross volunteers worked tirelessly to bring news of family members unable to escape Vietnam to the lucky ones who got out. Each day, names were posted at the camp of the missing, and each day brought unimaginable joy to a family who learned through the Red Cross that a parent, a sister, or a brother was safe. The Red Cross fed us, clothed us, gave us shelter and gave us hope. The Red Cross gave generously to desperately poor refugees who had nothing but tears of thanks to give in return.

I often think that perhaps there is a small, scared child fleeing from danger somewhere on her father’s back who might be cared for and comforted by the work that American Red Cross employees do each day. And I smile.

Laura’s commitment to the Red Cross is personal

When they arrived in the United States, the network of support that Laura and her family experienced through the First United Methodist Church, church sponsors Paul Leonard Calvert and his wife Eleanor Louise Rudd, in coordination with volunteers from the American Red Cross, Audrey Gordon and Jean Yeager, offered safety and happiness during the most difficult time of their lives. And the Nguyen family’s experience with the Red Cross didn’t end after their time in the refugee camp.

Laura’s father Mau Nguyen and his brother Sam Nguyen were separated during their passage to the United States. It was one of Mau’s deepest desires to see his younger brother again. Thankfully, months after arriving in the U.S., the brothers were reunited with the help of the Red Cross. It’s something Laura and her family will never forget. Laura recalls this reunion with gratitude:

“The Red Cross did more than reunite us. They fed us, clothed us, and gave us a place to live. They trusted us with their personal belongings and kept us safe until they were able to find us a house to rent. They helped all my siblings attend school and my dad and his brother a job in which they were most familiar with. They made it such a loving environment for my dad and my uncle. They gave us a chance at a new life and a better place to live. Growing up, my parents would tell me how much others helped us and that we should never forget that we came to this country with nothing, so we must work very hard to be able to someday give back to those in need. 

In my heart, they mean the world to me. I see them as my own family. My dad has a photo of them on his shrine that he prays to every day. I couldn't have thanked them enough and would like to tell them how they have inspired me to continue the mission of helping others as a Red Cross board member.”

Giving back as a proud Red Crosser

In high school, Laura joined the Red Cross as a volunteer. In 2011, she became a Team Supervisor Registered Nurse for the Southern California Biomedical Region. Later, Laura became a board member with the Red Cross of Orange County, helping to support all lines of service at the organization.

Even after all she has done, Laura is excited for the future and what else is to come:

“I look forward to working with the different board members who all come from diverse backgrounds. Being a board member of the American Red Cross allows me to see a more complete picture of its mission, from the disaster relief services, philanthropic side, as well as the blood donor services. I look forward to promoting the mission of the Red Cross with my local communities, including the Vietnamese community. I look forward to engaging with the youth volunteers, by encouraging them to become more active, such as my niece, who was able to start a blood drive in her local high school and my other niece who helped recruit blood donors. I look forward to learning more ways to help when a disaster strikes. I look forward to working or helping military families and hope someday I can be that person to reunite a family during or after a war who has been displaced.”

For Laura, the Red Cross has always been, and will always be, a special part of her life.

“I feel like it's fate and it's been a full circle. My family was reunited by the Red Cross and then I was given the wonderful opportunity to be able to help as many people as I can,” she said. I do consider the Red Cross as part of my family. I feel very close to many of the people that do the work they do every day.”

When Laura thinks back on her life, the Red Cross is a constant. Now, she is happy to be part of an organization providing help to other families, just as her family received help so many years ago:

“I feel very loved and very honored to be able to help out. I will always and forever be connected to the American Red Cross.”

Each year, the Red Cross International Services Restoring Family Links program reconnects families separated by war, conflict and migration. To learn more, visit redcross.org/reconnectingfamilies.