Responses to:
The Silver Lining of Disaster
Submitted on 24September 2005 anonymously
A long, long time ago - there was an idealistic dream called "Hands Across America."
The local Phoenix office found that a group of folks from the local homeless shelter were some of their best volunteers -- they handled some of the counting and assembling of "Mile kits" and even served as reliable members of the phone bank, answering questions and linking willing people with available "miles."
People with lots of spare time that answered the call to help.
I agree with this topic, who better to understand the need to help than those who are closest to the problem?
Submitted on 19 September 2005 by Hillary Roberts,
Project Linus NJ, Inc.,
President,
Keyport, NJ USA
We see the immediate and long range benefit of recipient involvement year after year at Project Linus NJ. Children who have received handmade blankets during a traumatic time in their lives; reciprocating by creating handmade blankets for their peers. We have been invited to conduct blanket making workshops in inner cities to engage youth volunteers in a give-back program. We wholeheartedly agree that when a person feels of use they re-emerge from personal tragedy with a tangible sense of self reliance and shared insight.
9 September
2005 by Susan Ellis
From a conference
I attended yesterday: A powerful idea
to spark your imagination. Also, we've just created a new
category in our online library about Disaster
Response.
Submitted on
9 September 2005 by Mary-Jeanine, Florida Quilt Network, Publisher,
Orlando, FL USA
Quilting is more than just a hobby! Thousands of quilters from around
the country are mobilizing to hold workshops to make quilts and blankets
of all sizes for victims to use now and to treasure in the future.
Major quilting organizations like Quilts, Inc., Project Linus and
AQS, are collecting quilts to disperse as needed.
Submitted on 8 September 2005 by Susan Pronk, Saint Marys
Hospital/Mayo Clinic, Volunteer Coordinator, Rochester, MN USA
Volunteers know the meaning of giving from the heart and our hearts
have certainly been touched by the tragedy of Katrina. Many of our
volunteers at Saint Marys Hospital/Mayo Clinic have asked what they
can do to help and have been waiting for news as to when and where
to make material as well as monetary donations and physical volunteering
either in the Gulf Coast or here with the evacuees to be stationed
in Minnesota. The response from the Mayo Clinic professionals ranging
from physicians to housekeeping personnel wanting to volunteer has
been overwhelming as I'm sure it has at many other health care facilities
across our nation. College students are already planning to use their
Winter and Spring vacations to go to the Gulf Coast to volunteer.
I agree with Susan Ellis that "volunteers are the silver lining
in the cloud of disaster".
Submitted on
8 September in response to our monthly e-mail update:
Greetings from New Zealand………..
Even this far from your country we feel the tragedy that has
befallen so many. I just hope that in among all the political
fallout that seems inevitable, no one forgets the volunteers who we
see on our TV screens night after night, doing things they probably
never imagined they would be called on to do. So if there is
an opportunity through your organisation, can you let them know their
efforts seem superhuman, especially when viewed from many thousands
of kilometres.
Cheers, Don Rhodes
Submitted on
8 September 2005 by Hillary Roberts, Project Linus NJ, Inc., President,
New Jersey USA
Community Voice Mail is working with Cisco Systems as
we speak to offer free telephone system/phone numbers for hurricane
victims to utilize in their search and connection to family, long
range resources and job relocations to come. This is a viable communication
tool offered free of charge to homeless families and working poor
with new applications being discovered! For more information contact
www.cvm.org
Submitted on
8 September 2005 by anonymous
My husband is a Deputy for our local Sherrif's department. The department
decided to send "a few, hopefully 20" people down to help
relieve the New Orleans Police. When they asked who would be willing
to take a couple of weeks of their own vacation time to go, the response
was overwhelming... over 150 men and women (of the 400 employees)
volunteered to go. I think it's outstanding that so many are willing
to donate themselves and their time to this cause.
Submitted on
8 September 2005 by Lesli Hill, American Red Cross, DSHR Volunteer,
Warsaw MO USA
I am a Natioanl Disaster Volunteer for the Red Cross and have worked
many disasters--including ground zero in NYC. I am also a professional
fundraising officer for a college and understand the immeasurable
value of volunteers. My Red Cross experiences however, have taught
me the most valuable lesson on volunteering--that lesson is that the
best volunteers are willing to lay aside their agendas and their feelings
of self-importance to respond to a need that is not at a convenient
time for them. We all have time to give on OUR schedule-when we can
neatly pencil it in to our to do list. The mark of a great volunteer
is the time they give when it isn't.
Submitted on
8 September 2005 by Rosalie White, American Radio Relay League, Field
& Educational Services, Newington CT USA
Almost everyone knows that Amateur (ham) Radio operators handle communications
during disasters -- that includes the 900 "hams" who have
volunteered to handle messages for Red Cross and other first responders
to Katrina. Katrina has brought some unique challenges to Amateur
Radio operators. Last week the large hospital company, HCA Inc., put
on a rescue operation, hiring 20 helicopters to airlift around 1,400
patients and staff people, many from Tulane University Hospital. HCA
airlifted Amateur Radio operators from Tallahassee, also, to handle
radio messages so that the helicopters would not have midair collisions!
This unusual system worked perfectly.
Submitted on
8 September 2005 by Kris Martinson, American Red Cross, Youth &
Volunteer Coordinator, Rochester, MN USA
Long before we knew the level of destruction that Katrina would cause,
our chapter volunteers were calling asking how soon we could get them
deployed so that they could be there to help. Once the needs were
known our volunteers couldn't wait to go and offer whatever help they
could. Within a few days, we logged close to 250 new volunteers wanting
to train so that they could also join the efforts. Our Minnesota community
has rallied to contribute almost $200,000.00 so far -- and that does
not include groups and organizations still planning collections. We
had a young mom and her 3 year daughter come in to sharpen pencils
for our training, children holding lemonade stands, and families bringing
in piggy banks. Everyone wants to do what they can. It is an extremely
exhausting and overwhelmingly heart warming time to be a part of the
world of volunteers. I hope this helps us tackle some of those "maybes"
that Susan writes of this month.
Submitted 8
September 2005 by Rustie Brooke, Wall Street Rising,New York City
USA
Kudos to John Throop and AVA (for a timely and action-oriented
disaster response. Their email blast and web remarks are much appreciated.
Submitted 8
September 2005 by Susan Pabon, PTA, Volunteer, NC USA
After watching the blame game and the pessimistic views on the TV,
it was a delight to read your optimistic and hopeful view of how we
as a country may be pulled tighter together after such a horrendous
natural disaster. I will share it with many!
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