Red Cross Volunteers Deploy for Second, Third Terms

Daniel Lozano (far right) had finished his tour of duty.

After working for the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief for two weeks, wading through two feet of water in New Jersey, stocking the warehouse and serving hot meals and whatever the Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) could hold, he flew back to San Antonio to resume his life. Then the memories of the people in need started to nag him; then his feeling toward Red Cross service began to call; then the next thing he knew, he was on a plane back to New York.

On Thanksgiving Day, Lozano was on a crew distributing hundreds of meals to people rebuilding their homes – and their lives – in Island Park, Long Island. Now on his second deployment, he has been out on another ERV handing out more relief supplies, seeing new faces and overcoming new challenges in the fifth week of the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

"I was a client from Hurricane Charlie. Before that, I had no idea about the Red Cross,” said Lozano. “In fact, I was one of those people who wouldn't even give to the United Way because some of that money went to the Red Cross. I was still mad about having to pay for coffee when I was in the military and came home from overseas in 1957 – 1958.

“Look at me now! I drive an ERV. This is my second time out on Hurricane Sandy. I've been in Tinton Falls, NJ, and Pennsylvania, and now back in New York.

“I love it.... Not the circumstances that bring me here. It's hard what people are going through. But I love this work and the Red Cross."

Photo: The team of Red Cross ERV truck 1142, Alan Herdle, Bart Bardaluccio, and Daniel Lozano in Island Park, N.Y., Thanksgiving Day. The trio distributed 250 Thanksgiving dinners and other necessities to residents across the neighborhood, which is slowly recovering from the effects of Superstorm Sandy.

Volunteer Spotlight: Andi Lee

Like many Hurricane Sandy Red Cross volunteers, Andi Lee, a bookkeeper and design consultant in Indiana, left her family (her husband and three children) at home while she dedicated two weeks of her time to helping people affected by the Oct. 29 disaster get back on their feet.

Although she is a regular Red Cross volunteer with her local Saint Joe chapter, this is Lee’s first deployment outside her region and as such, she didn't know what to expect from the assignment.

Lee initially found herself working in Harlem in Manhattan. Later, she served in Breezy Point on the Rockaways peninsula, as part of an enthusiastic and close-knit outreach team comprising mental health, health services and case workers.

The team, which also includes volunteers from Missouri and Minnesota, has been proactive in searching out local residents to assess their needs, and provide them with any basic necessities or emotional support that they require.

Lee has been impressed with the positivity and resilience of the Breezy Point community, where many residents are still without power and face a lot of work ahead of them to rebuild.

Volunteer Spotlight: Caroline Belina of Canada

“I like the actual work and meeting such wonderful, sympathetic volunteers – we all connect to support one cause,” reflected Caroline Belina, of Montreal, Canada.

One of many people who have come from Red Cross organizations around the world to join in the Red Cross relief effort in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Belina is grateful for the support and encouragement her family, home branch, and workplace have given her.

Belina joined her local chapter of the Canadian Red Cross at the urging of her mother, who thought she would be uniquely suited to provide help and comfort to those impacted by Superstorm Sandy. Her branch agreed and arranged for her to deploy.

The school system where she teaches agreed to grant her leave without pay, and her teacher’s union stepped in to cover her salary while she was absent from the classroom.

“Everyone thinks this will set a good example for the kids,” Belina said of the support she has received.

Working at a Red Cross distribution site in the Rockaways in Queens, N.Y., she was glad to be a part of the massive relief effort, which has involved more than 15,000 disaster workers in the several states impacted by the storm.

Photo: Canadian Red Cross volunteer Caroline Belina (second from left) and her American counterpart, Theresa Green, helped hand out warm coats to storm victims with New York Liberty retired basketball player Kym Hampton and retired New York Knicks star John Wallace. (American Red Cross/Sue Kariker)

American Red Cross Service: A New Family Legacy

When Barb Bakalyar, a Board member from the American Red Cross Southwest Minnesota chapter, and her daughter, Sarah Pohlman, trained together to become Red Cross volunteers, they were looking for a change of pace – and a change of scenery.

They had no idea that months later, the Greater New York Red Cross would tap them to help with the largest Red Cross disaster relief operation in the last five years.

When she got the call, Bakalyar wasn’t sure Pohlman, a busy social worker, would agree to deploy to the Hurricane Sandy operation in New York. But Bakalyar had a special trick. “I didn’t give her enough time to say no,” she said from the nursing triage room at the Red Cross shelter at Long Island’s Nassau Community College.

Since she arrived in New York last week, Bakalyar has been working for the nursing team at Nassau Community College, where the Red Cross has set up an emergency health clinic. Pohlman has been in the serving as a client case worker at Sandy Relief Operation headquarters in Manhattan. Both Bakalyar and Pohlman took time off from their full-time jobs in Minnesota to offer their professional expertise in the wake of the devastating storm.

Bakalyar and Pohlman each have skills critical to the recovery response. Since Sandy hit, the Red Cross has provided more than 89,000 health service and emotional support contacts for people who have been living in the toughest of conditions.

Right now, nearly 3,000 Red Cross workers are supporting shelters, providing food and water at fixed sites, as well as driving through neighborhoods to distribute meals and supplies. About 90 percent of these workers are volunteers from all over the country. To date, the Red Cross has mobilized more than 14,800 trained workers to help people affected by Sandy across 10 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Back in Minnesota, Bakalyar works in the nursing industry as a clinical nurse and consultant with Avera. She said that employer’s corporate philosophy of caring for others made it easy to get approval for the spontaneous trip to New York.

Since the American Red Cross’s founding on the Civil War battlefields, nursing care has been a priority of the organization. Bakalyar believes most nurses have a caring, compassionate personality, which ideally suits them for Red Cross service.

“When you’re in the caregiving field, it just feels right,” Bakalyar said about nurses working with the Red Cross. “It feels like what I’m supposed to do.”

Photo by Lilly Watson: Red Cross volunteer Barb Bakalyar serves on a triage team at the Red Cross shelter at Nassau Community College on Long Island. Bakalyar’s team brings needed health services and emotional support to shelter residents recovering from Hurricane Sandy.