Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Front row, from left, Lynne McCreight of Los Altos, a 7-year member of the Palo Alto chapter of the American Red Cross, joins fellow local reisidents Jan Yamamoto (front, at right), and (back, left to right) Karen Duncan, Claudia Coleman and Duane Schuessler, all of whom are on the local Red Cross board.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Los Altos residents come to the aid of the local Red Cross
When disaster comes calling, Tom Cascone of Los Altos is the man who answers the phone. Cascone is the disaster services coordinator for the 82-year-old Palo Alto Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.
When a disaster of national or international magnitude hits, staff at the national level of the American Red Cross compiles a needs list. Requests may be for shelter, medical, search and rescue staff, administrative or even media relations specialists. National staff divides and delegates the list to state offices, who in turn pass smaller lists on to area chapters like Palo Alto. Then it's up to coordinators like Cascone to match both trained and spontaneous volunteers to the needs list.
Cascone picks people with appropriate skills from a list of 1,700 local volunteers, 120 of whom are students. Though the local chapter is Palo Alto based, organizers want to put to rest any notion that this Red Cross serves only Palo Alto residents. This is truly a northern Santa Clara County effort, officials said. Included in the area chapter database are 63 Los Altos Hills residents. Los Altos resident and business volunteers total 168.
American Red Cross training builds on the knowledge and skills volunteers already have. After a first orientation presentation, volunteers may choose their department of interest and take ongoing orientation and training classes. As their knowledge level increases, volunteers advance over time through five levels of training, from the introductory rank of technician to the officer status of level five. Logically, officers are more likely than technicians to be called for a national or international disaster.
Volunteer activities are diverse and cover a broad range of services. Former Palo Alto Area Chapter board member and Los Altos resident, Lynn McCrieght, defined three area chapter responsibilities. Health and safety volunteers might teach CPR, first aid and safety, baby-sitting, or work on health care outreach programs. Disaster and community services volunteers respond to disasters, even single home fires, helping to provide shelter and food. Administrative volunteers keep the area chapter running. "Each function demands clerical support and phones, even putting sandwiches together, so there's a task for everybody who volunteers, even if they're not trained," McCreight said.
Ginger Beman of Los Altos is in her second year as a Palo Alto Area Chapter board member, but her original involvement was administering youth programs at Los Altos High School. Fourteen- to 18-year-old high school volunteers help prevent accidents related to drinking or drugs through the Safe Rides program.
Students also teach Safe Kids courses to children who are home alone after school. "The youth programs offer leadership skills and a chance to develop new skills. The kids gain so much personally and give so much back to the community." Beman believes early exposure to American Red Cross training is important. "The more teen-agers know about services in the community, the better they understand the need to support them as adults," she said.
Barbara Callison has volunteered as, among other things, an instructor/trainer for water safety, first aid, and CPR. When an instructor at Foothill College had a heart attack, the college called the area chapter looking for a substitute. Callison once again volunteered. She liked the experience so much that she returned to school herself, and now teaches classes on earthquakes and volcanoes at San Jose State University. Her training has saved at least one life on a rafting vacation down the Colorado River. "The first day I was out, we were sitting by the river, eating dinner. I heard the clink of the dishes when they hit the ground. A man was choking on his food. I found out that the Heimlich maneuver worked beautifully."
Though the American Red Cross has dealt with disasters since the 1880s, the process was not formalized in written format until the 1980s. And most of the disaster services and human resources (DSHR) procedures were developed in California. Our natural mix of fires, floods, and earthquakes, demand innovative solutions, organizers said. What California volunteers learn, document, and refine gets incorporated into the national process and is taught throughout the country. Cascone said that approximately one-third of national American Red Cross volunteers come from California.
Disaster Action Teams (DAT) can include specialists who provide disaster assessment, documentation, and mental health experts. Disaster workers must be able to travel for three week assignments.
Author and medical information systems specialist Karen Duncan volunteered as a disaster worker because of what she saw in the community during the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. "It seemed to me that there were a lot of stories of communities and people who had needs for rebuilding their lives. These needs were not being met quickly and it was not clear to people where to go for help. I thought I should become part of the solution."
American Red Cross funding comes from various sources. Anne Yamamoto of Frank, Rimmerman and Company, said that 40 to 45 percent of local income comes through donations. United Way funding is down to about 20 percent. Grants and fund-raising, along with fee-for-service health and safety classes, and corporate courses help.
Yamamoto believes the American Red Cross is often underutilized. Two parent groups put together emergency preparedness classes for her children's school. "They never realized there is an organization able to do that," Yamamoto said.
She also believes volunteer involvement is needed in every community. "Most people around this area are affluent, and most people seem to feel they are self-sufficient. But there are pockets of people who are not necessarily affluent, who are not self-sufficient, even pockets around here," said Yamamoto, "Even in the floods around the spring of 1998, how surprised people were that we opened a shelter in Palo Alto."
The area chapter got a taste of its own disaster aide when the chapter building flooded, also in 1998. Chapter volunteers pitched in to rebuild, refurnish and renovate the damaged structure on Mitchell Lane.
When the headlines are bad, Cascone's disaster line lights up. People read or hear the news, and they want to do something to help the victims, and they want to do it immediately. Cascone said volunteers shouldn't be discouraged if the only immediate help they can provide to disaster victims of Hurricane Floyd or the earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan is a cash donation.
According to a recent American Red Cross press release, financial contributions are the most effective means of providing rapid relief. Cash allows for a flexible use of resources, and it doesn't require transportation costs. The American Red Cross estimates cleanup costs for Hurricane Floyd at $25 million. The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has already committed $100,000 in disaster relief funds, and $60,000 worth of relief supplies, to Taipei.
The message from our area chapter Red Cross volunteers seems clear. Writing a check will help disaster victims now, while volunteering may help your community tomorrow.