Dolores Jech has been a volunteer with the Freeborn-Mower County Red Cross for 30 years, but she’s never had this kind of recognition.

On June 23, Jech was recognized and received a pin for her 30 years of service to the Red Cross.

“It’s kind of exciting when it’s you that gets it,” Jech said. “It’s hard to believe there’s been that many years.”

Jech has many pins from her years of volunteerism; she even joked that she wanted to get buried in her Red Cross smock. She got involved with the Red Cross after she volunteered at an area hospital and was introduced to Red Cross workers. She started working at their gift shop, moved on to the cafeteria and eventually got on the Mower County Board of Directors. She was on the board for six to eight years.

“I’m active in a lot of things for an old lady,” Jech said with a laugh.

Yet not only did Jech volunteer at her local Red Cross, she also helped out overseas.

Two of Jech’s daughters live in Australia, and for 30 years Jech and her husband, Rudy, who passed away four years ago, would winter there. Even then, Jech would go to hospitals where her daughters worked and connect with Australian Red Cross volunteers. After that, she continued working with the Red Cross in both Australia and the U.S.

“It’s interesting to think that I have people over there that know who I am,” Jech said.

Jech and her third daughter, Patti Nordin, continue to donate blood every few months. Jech also donates a crib-sized afghan to an annual Red Cross fundraiser auction. She remembers addressing many envelopes over the years, something that’s now computerized. She would also help out in kiosks selling snacks and such, and she has donated crocheted scarves.

“The Red Cross has meant a lot to me over the years,” Jech said.

But volunteering with the Red Cross is not the only thing Jech does.

“I love crocheting and I love doing things sitting down,” Jech said.

At 85 years old, Jech has two artificial knees and one artificial hip, but that doesn’t slow her down. Instead of doing things that require a lot of walking or standing, she crochets.

“Mom’s more limited as to what she can do, because of her age, and I think that’s another reason why she branched to the Salvation Army, Goodwill and the church, and wherever she can still lend a hand to do what she can do,” Nordin said.

Every year, she crochets 50 scarves in various sizes and donates them to the Salvation Army to hand out with donated coats. She has donated crocheted lap robes and baby afghans to those in need, or those who have blessed her. Jech recalled one man many years ago who helped keep her passion for volunteering her time and energy alive.

She and another volunteer used to go to nursing homes and hand out crocheted lap robes. One man, after receiving the gift, asked her, “Why are you doing this for me, you don’t even know me.”

“That’s all it took, I just kept going after that,” Jech said.

She has donated about 300 bags worth of Marigold seeds to the Salvation Army. She also puts together 50 layettes for overseas missions every year, filled with sweaters, undershirts, sleepers, stockings, diapers, hand towels, diaper pins and more. She searches for many of the items with her daughter and son-in-law at garage sales, and has even developed techniques over the years.

But she doesn’t only donate her skills to organizations.

“If I hear of somebody that really needs something that I can make [and they’ll] enjoy, then I will do that, because that’s what gives me the pleasure of doing it,” Jech said. “And I’m lucky my health has let me keep doing it.”

Jech has volunteered her time and energy to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Goodwill and her church, St. John’s Lutheran near Elkton. She has not only blessed people through volunteer work, but also the people closest to her.

“I think because mom has been a role model like that, that it’s taught us girls to be very generous and helpful in our community and in our jobs and the things we do,” Nordin said. “Now my daughter sees that in me and sees that in grandma.”