First Disaster Call

After months of volunteering at the Red Cross sending out emails and cleaning closets, I was presented with the opportunity to go on an emergency response call. After hours of training videos, instructional of pamphlets and conversations, I was still wholly unprepared.

In retrospect, it is impossible to fully train someone on how to best support people who are experiencing a disaster. There are some emotions that can’t be explained in a video – the hopelessness in one’s voice after they have just lost everything in a fire, the underlying uncertainty of the immediate future. The most obvious of these emotions is the situational distance between the rescuer, who still has their security and normality, and the disaster victim who has just had their security and normality suddenly whisked away. No matter how many training videos exist, nothing can prepare you for these emotions.

I quickly found myself facing these emotions as I visited a Lubbock resident whose house had just burned down. I had come to the Red Cross that day expecting to do volunteer office work, so I was dressed in trendy office wear much better suited for office parties than consoling fire victims. The weather was miserable that day — a mildly cold temperature made miserable by cutting Lubbock winds. At the table outside the remains of their house, the victims sat shivering. Most of the blankets and jackets, as well as all of their other possessions, were gone.

It was my job to help collect information, as well as provide information on how the Red Cross can help. The Red Cross provides assistance to any resident who suffers from a fire, and the process of setting up assistance does take time. Gathering information was difficult, as giving information is hard to do after having your house burn down. While collecting information, it was important to listen to the victim’s stories and thoughts.

As I tried to formulate questions to ask these people, I felt increasingly out of place. What these people needed was assistance and understanding. I could help provide assistance, but I could never understand the pain they were probably feeling. I have never been through a crisis like this, and it felt like the absurdity of my clothes and the hesitancy in my questions proved it.

Home Fire Photo from the Lubbock AJ

Despite these feelings, I was so glad to be apart of that situation. While many families have safety nets they can fall back on after situations like these, in many situations the Red Cross is some of the only support victims receive. With thousands of families being afflicted by costly fire damages, I am incredibly proud to belong to an organization that can provide physical, legitimate support. I may not be the best at providing emotional support to people in need (for now, at least), but I am so happy I am a part of an organization that allows me to be there and give help to those who have lost so much.

Guest contributor J. Miller

When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea - A new Red Cross volunteers reflections

If volunteering is to be viewed as a sacrifice for one’s community, volunteering with the Red Cross may be spoiling me. I have been volunteering with the Red Cross for just over a month now, and the relationships and opportunities I have found here have made it more of a pleasure to volunteer than a sacrifice.

Growing up in Lubbock, it has always been a little difficult to feel connected with the outside world. As the 2015 Smithsonian Magazine article, “When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea” shows, Lubbock used to be an ocean bed of a vast and expansive ocean. Today it is still easy to look out over the grand vistas of farms and prairies and be overtaken by the same feeling of vastness as if looking out over the sea. After all, we are hundreds of miles away from Texas’ large cities (sorry Amarillo!) and thousands of miles away from the countries that are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Growing up on the edge of Lubbock, it has always been easy to feel far away from the rest of the world.

I have only been with the Red Cross for a month now, but the opportunities and the world-wide actions the Red Cross provides has been incredibly inspiring. For example, the International Committee of the Red Cross is currently sheltering 20,000 refugees from Aleppo, Syria (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-strengthening-humanitarian-presence-aleppo-43898108). In Senegal, Senegalese Red Cross volunteers just finished another distribution of food vouchers to communities afflicted by low rainfall rates. (http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/africa/senegal/senegal-red-cross-and-echo-bring-a-smile-back-to-thousands-of-families-affected-by-food-insecurity-73729/). To be apart of such an organization, even if I am thousands of miles away, is an honor in itself.

            Not only is it an honor to be apart of an organization that is capable of extending such humanitarian aid, but the American Red Cross also provides opportunities to learn and grow as a volunteer. It was to my complete surprise that the Red Cross has an extensive online education program, capable of training me to become more skilled in plenty of different skill sets, including logistics, disaster services, finances and communications. This has been a huge help for me – as a college senior, the only things I feel truly skilled at doing are studying and power-napping, neither of which are particularly useful in the world of disaster response and aid. In these days of expensive higher education, the importance of free training for curious volunteers cannot be overstated. In my time volunteering in Lubbock there have been few opportunities to grow while serving a community, and I am exciting to have the opportunity.

            It is obvious I still have a long way to go before I can help the villages of Senegal or aid refugees in Syria. My foreign language studies have a long way to go, (Je voudrai visiter le Sénégal bientôt, mais les francophones parlent très rapidement. Mais, j’essaie.), my Disaster Response training is just shy of being completed and my graduation in May I will be faced with paying off college debt.

            Yet though I am far away, the Red Cross is allowing me to serve my community while continuing to grow. This is what brings me back each week, and why I considered myself spoiled. Even if the only way I can help currently is making phone calls to ask for donations and cleaning supply closets, I feel much closer to the outside world than before.

Guest Blogger Jerrod Miller

Just Another Saturday Morning

Just Another Saturday Morning

Yesterday morning at 8 a.m. I joined more than fifty Lubbock residents to participate in the Lubbock American Red Cross Smoke Alarm Installation Project.  We met first in the Lubbock High School cafeteria, where we were welcomed with a large buffet of baked goods and coffee donated by a local business, accompanied by sounds of the LHS Band rehearsing in the parking lot next door.

I chose to sit nearer the front at a table with 3 others, one of whom I learned was a new graduate student at TTU.  Following introductions, acknowledgements (LIA was recognized), and the power point orientation, we broke into Teams of 2 to begin our morning of installations.  The Teams with prior experience exited the cafeteria first – and that left all of 2 of us remaining, the TTU student and me!  So after picking up our supplies we joined Richard Alires’ experienced Team for the first appointment, and then we were on our own.  “He” took care of the installations, “She” took care of the paperwork.

Over the next 2+ hours we met four more families, installing 2-3 detectors in each home and providing guidelines on how to prevent fires and how to respond to the alarms.  And we talked.

We talked about dogs and their value as the ‘someone’s in the yard’ alarm.  We talked about families, children, and grandchildren.  We talked about people’s military service.  We talked about health concerns and disabilities.  We talked about our futures.  We learned about a young man’s fond memories of his high school English and history classes, and watched his eyes light up when he considered going back to school.  We talked with a high school student who shared his love of art and wanted us to see his sketchbook.  We learned how a Vietnam veteran lost his hearing when the bullet entered the back of his head and exploded in his eardrum.  And each time we said good-bye it was with warm handshakes and even warmer hugs.

Before we neared the end of the morning it was beautifully clear.  The Smoke Alarms were simply the vehicle.  They were the vehicle for the larger purpose of human beings connecting once again, sharing the everyday and the intimate, with affection and respect, knowing we are part of one human family.  The morning was a privilege and a gift.

And when “He” and “She” parted?  We agreed – we are already signed on for the Smoke Alarm Installation Project in 2017.  But between time?  We promised to email soon and meet at Starbucks next week!

Submitted by a guest writer S.M.