volunteer with the red cross

i tried it once, realised it’s not for me. i’m just not that type of person, i’m sorry

Help is always needed.

I’ve been a volunteer instructor for many years, and recently became an instructor trainer. I’ve taught CPR/AED, first aid, lifeguarding, swimming, title 22 (first aid for public safety personnel, a California-specific class), and I was even certified at one time to teach babysitting, but never got enough people together to actually teach it.

It’s rewarding, and it frees up staff time to work on things that I’m not qualified to do. I’ve had an urge to go do instructor paperwork at the office for a long time, based in part on frustration that their staff is so inundated with their work that our students’ cards sometimes take far too long to arrive back for distribution…

I live near New Orleans, and we had a ton of displaced folks here in a shelter. I volunteered in the shelter – serving food, handing out clothing. When you see first hand the fear in someone’s eyes following a disaster – how can you NOT help? It was good to be able to bring a smile to their faces – if only for a second. (Red Cross is a phenomenal organization.)

That was a real dragon country. It was night time when the Red Cross truck went to the countryside of Casiguran to distribute dust masks. The almost full moon made banana and coconut leaves silvery… and the gray volcanic ash snow-white.

Every barrio that we passed, we gave out boxes of masks. The air was thick with ashes and smelled of rotten eggs or burning tires. Sulfur.

Most farming villages were advised to get ready for evacuation anytime. That means packing up personal essentials, chickens, and pigs.

Schools outside the 4-kilometer radius automatically prepared to receive evacuees should the need arise. Back in the Red Cross Headquarters, we packed rice, canned sardines, and instant noodles for distribution.

Alright, all that practice to time rescue breathing perfectly (exactly 60 seconds) has made my mouth sore. Pumping dummy chests for CPR made the heels of my palms black and blue. Enough for the day.

April 29

How to transport patients/injured persons using your body? That’s what we did the whole day. Cradle carry, pack strap, fireman’s carry, limb carry. The objective is to make carrying second to your nature that you simply do it when emergency time comes. You shouldn’t think about how fireman’s carry is done; you just do it when taking a person out of the highway (where the accident happened) into a safe place.

I can carry children and people below one hundred pounds while walking a 20-meter distance. That’s all. I refused to carry weights more than that. I have sore muscles the rest of the week.

April 24, 2006

Training begins. So far so good. Good classmates. We are all from different professional backgrounds. Lecture started at 9.
In the afternoon, the instructor gave us a sampling of how to conduct scene survey, activating medical assistance, and assessing the patient/victim.

I have worked disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina in both Gulfport, Mississippi (Sep 7-25) and New Orleans, LA (Dec. 17-Jan 18). It was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life, and biggest adventures. I drove a box truck door to door supplying many residents with food and cleaning supplies, worked on an emergency responce vehicle handing out rations, and volunteered at animal hospitals in my off time. I would do it again ina heartbeat.

I volunteered shortly after Rita and Katrina. I was called to go down and ended up going to the shelter in Monroe, LA. I was there for 18 days, and it was quite simply one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It’s unbelievable to me that these people that were here had literally, about a shopping cart’s worth of belongings. I had about the same, but I was only doing this for a short while. This is ALL they had to their names. This trip really made me appreciate what I had, friends, family, etc. And, it made me realize that there are so many things in my life that I don’t need or that are much less important than I think they are.

I would highly recommend anyone who wants to do this to really really get out there and do it.