SGPV Members Respond to Their First DAT Call

On February 21st, an emergency call came into the Red Cross office in Pasadena. A fire in Monrovia had destroyed the garages of two houses and damaged the homes themselves, leaving two families out in the cold. Safe Corps members Lindsay and Jennifer donned their hard-hats and vests, responding to the scene to interview the clients and assess damage. With the help of their more experienced fellow DAT members they filled out all of the forms necessary to provide each family with lodging and food for a few nights. The families were in shock as they returned to their homes to find holes in the roof and many possessions damaged or destroyed. Lindsay and Jennifer helped comfort the clients as they collected belongings to see them through the next few days. After all of the families were safely heading to their lodging for the night, the CSC members entered all of the information into the Red Cross’s Client Assistant System, enabling the clients to get the help and follow-up that they needed.

SD CSC Members Teaching Others to Teach CDE

In February, the San Diego California Safe Corps (CSC) members, Dora Arnold and Mariana Vasconcelos co-taught for a Speaker’s Bureau Training for the staff of Jewish Family Services. Jewish Family Services is a resettlement agency which serves refugees and fixed income senior citizens. During the training they taught the staff how to give the American Red Cross Community Disaster Preparedness (CDE) presentation which includes how to I. Make a Plan, II. Build a Kit, and III. Be Informed. The training the staff received will allow them to teach the clients and staff at Jewish Family Services how to prepare for a disaster.

OC Volunteer Opportunity Fair

The success of the Red Cross cannot be attributed to anyone more deserving than the amazing volunteers who dedicate their time, talents, and money to the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross. They make up the identity of the Red Cross and without them, the organization would not be where it is today. That is one of the reasons engaging and recruiting volunteers is such an essential chapter function.

In pursuit of this, CSC member Grady Murphy coordinated the first all-chapter Volunteer Opportunity Fair showcasing our chapter’s new Volunteer Mentoring Program. On February 26th, 2011, over 20 functions and activities across a variety of departments were represented at the event. Function leads were given the opportunity to showcase how their functions contribute to the mission of the American Red Cross to new volunteers looking for ways to donate their talents and time. 25+ new and potential volunteers attended to find out how what their best fit would be within the many opportunities for voluntary service in the organization. CSC member Monique Phan attended to support the Preparedness Education function and recruited a volunteer who is now working to engage the local Indian population. The Volunteer Mentor Program also used the event to kick off their new program which provides experienced volunteers to serve as mentors for new chapter members as they find their place in the mission of the Red Cross. Due to the Fair’s success, the chapter has elected to hold this event 2 more times before the end of the calendar year and on a quarterly basis from then on.

Apartment Fire Response in Humboldt

February started off with a bang for the Humboldt County Safe Corps team. An apartment fire on February 2nd in Arcata left 16 people displaced, 12 of which were college students. There were no serious injuries, but one man did break his wrist after jumping off the balcony to escape the fire. The Safe Corps team worked with the local college to provide immediate care for all the victims, including housing, food, and clothing. The Tri-City-Weekly posted an article about the American Red Cross involvement in the fire: http://www.times-standard.com/tcw/ci_17386775 .

Safe Corps members teach CPR to Project Apple AmeriCorps

In January the California Safe Corps members of LA conducted their first large CPR/FA course to another local AmeriCorps group called the Bellflower Project Apple. Project Apple members work with an after school program of the Bellflower school district. As a result of the large size of the group, the course took three separate Friday sessions. Logistics and course preparation was led by CSC member John Vidaurrazaga who worked with the group contact, Shanti, over the month prior to the initial day.

The Project Apple participants were attentive and generally well humored. John led through the first two Friday sessions and made use of his own great sense of humor to keep the relatively young group engaged. The rest of the LA 7 CSC members checked skills and supplemented information as the course went on. Jean Milan from the Santa Monica chapter came out for the first Friday session which covered the longer section, CPR. As a result the second Friday went by faster since it only covered the First Aid components.

To bring the course to a wrap CSC members Charles Allen and Hildi Cruz went out for a third Friday to cover a make up session. Overall it was a beneficial experience for all of the LA CSC members as instructors and as team players.

Brian and the Tsunami Warning

It was 6:34am in the morning on March 11, 2011 when I awoke to the sound of my work cell phone ringing. From the hotel bed I just looked at the phone ringing on the desk across the room and wondered who the heck could be calling me at this time in the morning. It was Friday morning and I was in Eureka, CA conducting a site visit at the Humboldt County Chapter. I was extremely exhausted because I had been conducting site visits to the Northern California CSC chapters all week. I decided to let the phone go to voicemail.

A minute after I let my work phone go to voicemail my work cell phone and my personal cell phone started to ring. I knew then that something was up and that I had better answer the phone. I looked at my caller ID on my phones and it was the 2 Humboldt County CSC members Wayne and Phillip calling. I answered my work phone and Wayne on the other line told me that there was a tsunami warning for Humboldt County. That woke me up immediately!

After I heard the news from Wayne I decided to go to the front desk of the hotel to see what was going on. I walked to the front desk of the hotel and noticed that the front desk person was in a panic. I told her I knew about the tsunami warning, if Wayne hadn’t informed me about the tsunami warning the sirens that were going off by now would have alarmed me to the fact that something wasn’t right. The lady at the front desk told me that emergency services said that there was no need to evacuate the hotel. They were only evacuating people up to 3rd street. The fact that the hotel was located at 4th street didn’t bring the front desk person or me much comfort.

As I walked back to my hotel room I ran into the young mother that was traveling with her infant son. I met this mother when I first checked into the hotel. When she saw me she immediately remembered that I worked for the American Red Cross. By now she had heard about the tsunami warning and asked me what we should do. I guess she forgot about me telling her that I was more of a grant manager than an emergency responder for the Red Cross. I told her that I was going to swing by the local chapter to see if there was anything I could do or to get any information. I promised her that I would contact her with any news that I got.

It was a little before 8:30am before I arrived at the Humboldt County Chapter. When I got there the place was humming with volunteers responding to the disaster. By the time I got to the chapter they had already opened up a shelter for about 200 people that were evacuated from the coastal areas. Both CSC members, Wayne and Phillip, were already at the shelter serving the evacuated disaster clients.

At the chapter I ran in to Christina Jones Koczera the Disaster Director for the Humboldt County Chapter. Christina is also a former CSC member that served during the 2009-10 program year. I stood there proudly watching as one of my former members stepped up and took control during this time of disaster. As she juggled all her responsibilities Christina found the time to tell me that the 101 Freeway out of town was temporarily closed as a precaution due to the tsunami warning. I asked her if I could be any help at the chapter and she told me that they had it covered. Christina reminded me that if I got stranded in Eureka that I could become a disaster client. She told me I should go back to my hotel and take care of myself first.

I went back to my hotel after I left the chapter. I shared with the young mother the news about the 101 Freeway closure. I then went back to my hotel room.

Once I got back to my room my stomach started to rumble from hunger. All the restaurants in town were closed. It was at this time that I wished I had my disaster supplies kit with me. I usually carry one in my car but I was driving a rental car this week. I ended up grabbing a soda and a stick of beef jerky from a gas station on my way out of town for breakfast (not exactly the breakfast of champions). In the future I will always have my kit with me.

I kept listening to the news and finally at around 11am I heard that the 101 Freeway was open. Once I heard the news I got into my car and headed out of town on my 12 hour drive back to Los Angeles.

SM Members Attend and Event to Promote the ARC

The excitement continues... on the 16th of February, the Santa Monica district office held a chamber mixer event. At this event, we promoted the Red Cross and how we serve local the local community. Once again, the J-Crew (Jean, John and Jun) was present to help out with the event. Jean Milan was in charge of promoting disaster preparedness to the local community. Jonathan, as usual, was our go to guy for the night. And Jun Kim demonstrated CPR and explained its importance. There were a few hundred participants. It was a great opportunity to interact with the Santa Monica community and talk about preparedness and the importance of Red Cross' involvement in the community.

We also got plenty of help from our youth volunteers: Juan, Denise and Yair. They experienced their first Red Cross event and did a fine job helping us throughout the night. Juan practically lives at the chapter and has easily put in about five hundred hours of community service at the American Red Cross of Santa Monica. He never ceases to amaze us with his dedication and commitment. Denise and Yair are also great youth volunteers and they consistently help us out with projects and events. Denise recently gave a preparedness presentation to the entire seventh graders at Lincoln middle school, which will be shared in the next blog.