Red Cross and Stephanie Crispinelli Humanitarian Fund Partner with Primrose Elementary for “Steph's Comfort Kit” Event

by Ehrett Ramey

The second annual Valentine's Day "Steph's Comfort Kit" event was hosted by the Stephanie Crispinelli Humanitarian Fund and the American Red Cross Feb. 14 at the Primrose Elementary school in Somers, N.Y.

Stephanie Crispinelli, herself from Somers and a graduate of Primrose Elementary, devoted herself to helping others, volunteering and making children smile. She participated in mission trips abroad and volunteer projects, especially to help in-need youth. She returned to Primrose to help young students and start youth programs.

Tragically, Stephanie lost her life at age 19 in the 2010 Haiti earthquake while on a humanitarian mission through Food for the Poor. The Valentine’s Day event embodied Stephanie’s spirit, as a group of first graders celebrated her memory by making comfort kits for other children in need.

The day was filled with smiles, as around 100 first graders and volunteers tied together colorful blankets and stuffed comfort kits with all kinds of goodies, including a pillow, a beany baby teddy bear and children’s books.

Watching our youngest Red Cross volunteers in action was an awesome sight, especially in light of their enthusiasm and excitement. It was hard to tell who was having a better time, the adult volunteers or the kids putting together the comfort kits. 

One of the most energetic and productive first graders, Rebecca Fabry, said, “Getting out of class to have fun and help others is the very very best thing.” 

“The second annual Stephanie Crispinelli Day was a huge success,” said Andrew Sindell, manager, Volunteer Resources & Youth Services for the Metro New York North chapter. “The Red Crossers who participated are looking forward to Valentine’s Day next year to continue this uplifting celebration of Stephanie and her legacy.”

"Without the Red Cross we would have been lost."

Volunteers come from many walks of life. For some, it is a chance to give back to their communities. For Francklin Morose, a volunteer with the American Red Cross on Long Island, it's much deeper than that— as his journey began with the world literally crumbling at his feet.

Morose was at his accounting job in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, 2010—the day of the worst earthquake in the island nation's history.

It began with a simple shake he recalled. He and his colleagues thought a big truck had driven by.
“Then,” he said, “everything started to fall down—the walls, the ceiling.”

With all the entrances blocked, Morose and his colleagues were forced to jump to the ground from a second story bathroom window. That’s when they realized an earthquake had struck.

“The whole block was dark; everything had changed,” Morose said.

He described buildings destroyed; communications disrupted; trees down; and people who were bloodied and bruised running through the streets. He made his way home and found it destroyed.

That night, Morose located his family in a park, among hundreds of others that had lost their homes.

“There was no food, drink, nothing,” he said.

The mental toll was equally as heavy. Morose became concerned about Alexa, his six-year-old daughter. She had been at school during the quake. Although physically unscathed, she had been traumatized by the experience and screamed at every noise.

A few days later, Morose heard that the United States was allowing Haitian-American citizens who had been affected by the quake to evacuate. Because Alexa had been born in Florida, she was eligible to travel. Because she was underage, Morose was permitted to accompany her. Alexa’s mother, concerned about leaving her job, stayed behind in Haiti.

Father and daughter took a military transport plane to Orlando, Fl. At the airport, American Red Cross relief workers gave them food, toys and contact information for the Red Cross on Long Island as they would be traveling to Baldwin, N.Y., the next day; Morose planned to stay with a cousin who lived there.   

Shortly after arriving on Long Island, Morose visited the Red Cross office in Mineola, and was given a stipend for winter clothing, along with information about how to apply for Social Security, food stamps and more.

“This was exactly what I needed to start,” he said.

“Red Cross gave me their friendship,” he added. “When I came to my cousin’s house, I didn’t know anyone. The Red Cross called to make sure we were okay. That’s when I decided to volunteer.”

Morose is on call two days a week as a Disaster Action Team volunteer who responds to fires and other local emergencies, helping those in need with the same kind of immediate humanitarian relief he and Alexa received from the Red Cross.

In the two years since he and Alexa arrived in the United States, they have moved from his cousin’s house to Bellerose. Morose now works as a childcare worker for children with disabilities.

He says Alexa, who attends first grade at a Queens public school, is doing better. But because she does not want to return to Haiti, they will stay in the country. Morose, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration he earned in Haiti, plans to go to school here for a degree in finance.

Meanwhile, he says he volunteers for the American Red Cross “to help other people as they helped me.”

He added, “I would like to thank everyone who contributes to make the Red Cross what it is. Without the Red Cross, we would have been lost.”

Haiti, One Year Later

In the most recent installment of the American Red Cross' podcast, Across the Globe, President and CEO Gail McGovern candidly discusses her experiences in Haiti over the past year; how relief and recovery is progressing on the ground; and what plans the Red Cross has to address challenges in Haiti.  Click here to listen.

For me, there was no saying, “No.”

My journey back to my homeland, Haiti, came at a time when my people were at their worst. I had left as a 10-year-old child and had never been back. The American Red Cross opened a door for me to travel back to Haiti, and I accepted the opportunity with a heart full of grief. The earthquake left so many dead and so many survivors suffering from severe trauma—both physical and mental.

I am a licensed Master Social Worker. I had also trained and been certified as a NY Red Cross Disaster Mental Health worker in April 2009. On January 17 I was recruited by the Red Cross to work as a Creole-speaking volunteer on the military hospital ship the USNS Comfort. I left to serve as a translator and was told to use my mental health skills as needed—and that the Haitians onboard the ship would definitely need them. For me, there was no saying, “No,” though I was faced with family and financial constraints.

I arrived on board the ship on January 22. By luck, that day, I sat next to the ship’s psychiatrist at dinner. After discovering that I was the only Creole-speaking Haitian social worker on the ship she said, “You have to participate in my mental health program.”

One cannot detail the enormous mental health needs aboard the ship, which had one psychiatrist, one psychologist, three military mental-health support staff and one social worker—me. The disaster brought the Haitian community face-to-face with many mental health issues: the death of loved ones, separation of families, loss of function, jobs, shelter, personal belongings and having to rebuild and recover in the mist of their own grief and medical issues. Many faced life-challenging questions—whether to amputate an arm, a leg, or both. Some faced the realization that they might never walk, sit, see or think the way they used to.

The experience of counseling fellow Haitians on the hospital ship helped me to reconnect with my culture. I met people from all classes in Haiti—men, women and children, young, old. This enriched my knowledge of what the culture is really about. They would call me their sister. The fathers and mothers would call me their daughter. They made me feel I had a purpose as a social worker—this was what I needed to use my skills for.

Traveling to Haiti has been rewarding in more ways than words can express. Thank you, American Red Cross in Greater NY, for giving me the opportunity to serve my fellow countrymen in a time of crisis.

Magaly Polo, a 42-year-old single mother of two, immigrated to New York from Haiti with her family when she was ten. Magaly, who now lives in Elmont, New York, is a licensed master social worker holding down three jobs: at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn and at Transitional Services for NY, Inc. She recently received the “Woman of the Year Trailblazer Award” from the Nassau County Executive’s Office for her work as a Red Cross volunteer aboard the USNS Comfort. She also received the Navy’s “Person of the Day” award, while serving aboard the Comfort.

“We called him John Doe.”

Marie-Ange Tribié was not a Red Cross volunteer before the earthquake in Haiti. But when she learned from her nephew-in-law in Miami that the Red Cross was recruiting volunteer translators to go to Haiti, she signed on immediately.

She trained for a day at Chapter headquarters in Manhattan and was on her way two days later. Before leaving, Marie-Ange presciently said, “Translation is the assignment, but we know before going that we’ll be doing more. They need our comfort, our empathy. That’s where the human touch comes in. That is going to make a big difference in these people’s lives.”

On the Navy hospital ship Comfort Marie-Ange worked in a 58-bed ward filled with sick and injured children. “We called him John Doe,” Marie says of the little boy from a destroyed orphanage in Port-au-Prince who had been dropped off at a hospital in the capital by a motorcycle driver and sent to the ship by an onshore doctor. He was suffering from a skin disease that covered his emaciated body and had invaded his eye, and he was severely traumatized from the earthquake and its chaotic aftermath.

On the ship John drank nothing, and, at first, ate only graham crackers. His legs were like jelly; he would just fall down if one tried to make him stand. He did not speak. He screamed and cried constantly. He was so difficult that for a while he required sedation.

Noticing a few days later that little John Doe seemed responsive to soothing and holding, Marie-Ange volunteered to care for him and spent hours caressing, stroking and speaking to him. Since he couldn’t stand, she just sat and held him. Slowly he began to eat more and, after two weeks, he was eating, walking, jumping up and down, smiling from time to time, even kissing and hugging a stuffed bear. The same John who most of the kids were afraid of when he arrived onboard, became loved and cared for by all.

But John Doe never really talked. He did, however, curse—in Creole. Gently but firmly Marie-Ange weaned him from this habit. One day he went to help himself to the milk he knew was kept in a certain refrigerator. He cursed at the nurse who stopped him. Marie-Ange told him, “No cursing. When you want something, ask for it.” And he took the nurse’s hand and put it on the fridge.

“He was such a success story that everybody on the ship came to see him, even the captain and two visiting admirals,” said Marie-Ange. “But all he really needed was some love.”

Marie-Ange Tribié lives in Wilmington, North Carolina and was in Queens when the earthquake in Haiti occurred. Following her introductory volunteer mission with the Red Cross, she plans to continue as a volunteer and take advantage of Red Cross training courses. Marie-Ange reports that following an operation performed on the hospital ship, John Doe was transferred to an orphanage in Haiti operated by Mission of Hope. She never learned his real name.

“We became their mothers, brothers, sisters, counselors.”

As soon as Sherri Casting heard about the earthquake in Haiti, she wanted to volunteer immediately. She learned via a friend’s Facebook page that the Red Cross needed translators. A few phone calls later Sherri was enrolled in a special volunteer program for Creole speakers who would serve as translators for Haitian patients being treated by Navy doctors on the 1,000-bed hospital ship, Comfort.

After a one-day training course Sherri flew from Florida to Guantanamo, then to Port-au-Prince by cargo plane and from there by helicopter to the hospital ship located off the coast of the Haitian capital for a 30-day stint as a translator. “As soon as we got on the ship and saw the patients, we knew we couldn’t just sit around and translate. We became mothers, brothers, sisters, counselors to the patients. We wanted to be part of their rehabilitation,” Sherri reported.

On the Comfort, Sherri worked in a limited-care ward where the patients weren’t so critically injured. She says that she mostly listened, prayed and talked with them. One patient Sherri especially remembers was a young 19-year-old boy, an artist, whose name was “Lucky Star.” He had been at home on the day of the earthquake because he wasn’t feeling well. He was lying in bed when the ceiling fell on him, breaking his pelvis and tearing his bladder. Lucky Star impressed Sherri, because even after all he’d been through, he was so positive. She told herself, “I can’t let myself be down when here’s this fellow with nothing and he’s always smiling.”

Sherri Casting, 25, was born in Brooklyn but raised in Pétionville, Haiti, until the age of 17. Now a full-time student majoring in forensic psychology at John Jay College, Sherri last visited the country in 2005. Her relatives in Haiti, riding in a car far from Port-au-Prince, felt the severe shaking of the earthquake, but suffered no harm. The school Sherri attended in Port-au-Prince was destroyed by the earthquake.

“The Red Cross has done a good job in Haiti and in New York.”

When the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jean Cherizer Franguel, his wife, and their 14-month-old daughter escaped unharmed from their home just before it collapsed. For the next three days, having no other recourse, they slept outside. Then, a friend suggested that because their daughter had been born in New York City and was therefore a citizen, Jean should bring his family to the United States.

After consulting with the American consulate, Jean’s wife and daughter traveled together to New York on a US Navy plane; Jean traveled separately and reunited with them here. Remembering the support the Red Cross provided in Haiti after the earthquake, Jean sought help for his family too. At Chapter headquarters in Manhattan, they were given emergency funds for food and clothing. Through a translator, Jean said, “The Red Cross has done a good job in Haiti and in New York."

–Jean Cherizer Franguel

"It turned out to be the greatest experience of my life."

We were all shocked by the earthquake in Haiti. I felt helpless and left out as I watched on TV how the world was swarming to help Haiti. When I learned on Facebook that the Red Cross was looking for volunteers, I applied right away. The training process was very quick. Then I got a phone call confirming that I would be on the hospital ship Comfort for 30 days. I was apprehensive, because I wanted to be on land. I thought, “How can I help by being on a hospital ship?” It turned out to be the greatest experience of my life; the best thing I have ever had the privilege to do.

I worked in Casualty Receiving, which was the emergency room that all the patients came through when they arrived. The first two weeks were extremely busy but well-organized. Though I was a volunteer translator, I had the chance to do a lot more than just translating—holding down patients during painful procedures, washing them, feeding those who couldn’t feed themselves because of their new disability, or who were just too weak to do it themselves. It was a humbling experience.

I have many wonderful but sad stories that will always stay with me, but here is one I would like to share: Casualty Receiving was not very busy during the last week of my stay, and most of the patients I normally would visit during my off hours had been transferred to onshore hospitals. I started to visit the pediatrics ward where I brought goodies. One day a girl about 10 years of age called me. “Zanmi, zanmi vini pale ou,” she said. “My friend, can I talk to you a second?” She was lying on a transport bed and was paralyzed from back injuries. The girl had a wonderful smile, and I later found out that she was loved by many volunteers. She was escorted by her aunt, who was not with her at the moment.

The girl asked if I had a pen and a sheet of white paper. Her request was very specific—she knew exactly what she wanted. I jokingly asked if I could give her a pencil instead, since I didn't want to part with my only pen, which I needed to take down numbers to call for patients who needed to contact relatives. I asked her why she wanted a pen. I figured she needed to draw, but she wanted to write a “thank you” letter to the people on the boat. She was pleased with our efforts and grateful for how we cared for her and loved her. That small child was one of many who made me feel I was there for a purpose.

–Emmanuel Guerrier, Queens, NY

“It takes a village to get this type of operation going.”

New York Red Cross Senior Supervisor of Response and International Red Cross delegate Dario Diaz Jr. left for the Dominican Republic—his childhood home—on January 19 where he was assigned as a Support Disaster Liaison Officer for the Haiti relief effort. He spent his first day on the job in a warehouse supervising the loading of relief cargo arriving at the DR airport and getting it on the road to Haiti. Dario described the situation as a logistical “rollercoaster ride,” saying that “it takes a village to get this type of operation going.”

 As Dario reviewed all the hats he wears in Haiti—logistics representative, translator, port operations operator—he described his job as “Troubleshooter—making sure that what is requested by our teams in Haiti get to them quickly and safely … making sure that all things in transit to Haiti via Dominican Republic leave ‘yesterday.’ Fortunately, we are getting it done.”

One thing Dario felt on meeting the first American Red Cross team to return to the Dominican Republic from Haiti was a tremendous sense of pride. “I felt the essence of the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross,” he said. “The team was beat up, tired and hungry, but most importantly, they were coming from helping others.”

–Dario Diaz Jr.

Being Deployed to Haiti