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Wednesday morning, August 31st 2005, I arrived at working realizing that the Hurricane Katrina was a true national disaster. I received an email sent at 11:52PM on August 30th from the Democratic National Committee (attached 73kb PDF). The email offered two links, one to donate money to the Red Cross, the other was if you want to volunteer contact your local Red Cross Chapter.
This post is the second of a set relating to volunteering with the Red Cross’s relief effort. The initial post was Hurricane Katrina – Donate Cash or Volunteer.
The volunteer link was especially interesting to me as I have a general feeling that it is fairly easy to raise money for a good cause, but it is harder to find plentiful quality staffing. The Arlington VA chapter was already offering two classes on Thursday the 1st to train people for deployment. They indicated that they needed people for two to three week deployments in harsh conditions, with out A/C, no running water and such.
When my wife arrived at work I discussed with her if she would mind if I volunteered for deployment. Immediately she indicated an interest in joining me. We agreed that we would speak to our employers regarding taking unpaid leave to volunteer. This would be a good opportunity to volunteer really helping people. We help out at fund raiser events quite often, but at those you are far away from those with the true need.
My wife received approval from her supervisors quickly. My boss agreed that he would ask our VP if I could take the time off. My time off is a little more complicated because I supervise a quarterly statistical publication, so I could only commit for a deployment which allowed me to return by September 24th. By then end of the day, I was approved for time off also. We registered for the Thursday PM class and noted that the AM class was already filled up.
On Thursday night we joined about 50 other people at the Arlington Red Cross Chapter offices for a four hour training. They went over the basics of the Red Cross history, the services that the Red Cross (and Red Crescent) provide, and then the basics course content of Mass Care: An Overview and Introduction to Disaster Services. We filled out pages and pages of forms. The instructor told us that regardless of our skills, at this point they need shelter staffing, so that is what you should be prepared to do. He also said that the earliest we would get a call for deployment was Tuesday the 2nd.
We left the class excited to help out and with the goal of getting our home, cats and supplies in order for shipping out. It was convenient that we had a long weekend in front of us, we stocked up on some needed hot weather clothing and waited.
To Be Continued
Want to volunteer? People will be need for months, visit either Volunteer Match or your local Red Cross chapter website.
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