Red Cross hosts annual heroes breakfast March 19
The Highland County Board of Commissioners proclaimed the month of March as American Red Cross Month, during their Wednesday, March 12 meeting.
Commissioners Shane Wilkin, Tom Horst and Jeremy Shaffer signed the proclamation.
Accepting the proclamation on behalf of the Clinton and Highland County Red Cross were: Kelley Robbins, Sharon Cornette, Becki Wilkin, Dianna Bailey and Jennifer Brown.
The Red Cross will holds its annual heroes breakfast at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington on Wednesday, March 19.
The 2014 heroes awards breakfast will feature guest speaker Jessica Buchanan Landemalm.
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Jessica was born in Portland, Ore., but spent her formative years growing up outside of Cincinnati.
In 2003, Buchanan moved to the greater Philadelphia area to pursue a degree in education, and she began to travel during her summer months, teaching and volunteering in Honduras, South Sudan and Rwanda. She secured a student teaching position at an international school based in Nairobi, Kenya, The Rosslyn Academy, and was offered a full-time teaching position at that school.
She later moved to Hargeisa, Somaliland, where she was offered a job as the regional education adviser, also spending time in conflict zones in South Sudan, Uganda and Somalia for the Danish Demining Group, the mine action unit of Danish Refugee Council.
After a staff training visit, in the field office of South Galkayo, Somalia, Buchanan, along with her colleague, a Danish citizen, were abducted by a group of Somalis on Oct. 25, 2011.
She was held outdoors for 93 days in deplorable conditions, terrorized by drugged-out thugs who demanded a $45 million ransom for her freedom. Her liberation came on the evening of Jan. 25, 2012, when the esteemed Seal Team Six came in to rescue her.
A little over nine months after her rescue, Jessica welcomed her first child, a baby boy named August. She currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, Erik, and son, August, speaking about her experience and different African issues regarding education and the plight of child soldiers.