Ok, so my nice, peaceful evening didn't quite turn out as expected.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Around 9 last night I received a call from a fellow DAT member that an apartment building was being evacuated and we were meeting at the Kelly Inn in St. Cloud.

Apartment building? Hah! Try assisted living facility - 60 kooky (and I do mean that in the nicest possible sense of the word :smiley: ) old people who needed a place to stay for at least tonight, and breakfast tomorrow, and, depending on the status of the gas leak, a place to stay tomorrow night.

Oh, yes, the gas leak. They’re not really sure what the smell is (methane? sewer? something else?), and they can’t figure out where it’s coming from, but the city packed it up for the night around midnight and is sure it’ll be gone by tomorrow. :dubious:

Anyhow. A good friend of the chapter’s secretary just happens to be one of the banquet coordinators at the Kelly and set us up with coffee and juice and snacks (Note: Do not give popcorn to old people. They’re just like little kids. The place looked like the aftermath of a food fight when we left.), and the clerks on duty were wonderful - especially the one guy, to whom we’re going to write a wonderfully praising letter. It really is awesome to have cooperation like that.

Especially when you’re dealing with 60 kooky old people who are worried about pets (dogs were brought over; cats had to tough it out) and medications (we went around and drew up a list of locations and the fire department went back and got them) and their STUFF and how are their kids going to find them; and I had cancer surgery just a few months ago; and I have a bad hip, you know; and I like you Red Cross people! When I was in the service…; and coffee? I don’t want any coffee! Bring me a bourbon and water!; and I forgot to tell you to bring my teeth when you went to get my medication!; and how long are we going to have to stay?; and…about a million other things.

It’s really weird, when things are so busy and chaotic, how a half-dozen people all working together can make things just fall into place, y’know?

We finally got them all into bed around midnight, and I got home around 1ish, and I’m high on caffeine and, I suppose, adrenaline. In a couple of hours I’m going back to help them with breakfast.

I love this. :slight_smile:

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You are a wonderful person to be doing this. Is this part of your job or is it vounteer work?

3

DAT ?

Apparently I’m just so out of the loop / behind the times…

4

Hrm. I’m not quite sure.

I’ve been volunteering for a while now. About a month ago my (paid staff) supervisor resigned - she had been commuting three hours a day for two years and took a job closer to home, although she intends to keep volunteering. About a week before she left I was at the office chatting with our executive director, Beth, and Beth started talking about the staffing shortage with Stacey leaving, and another one going from full to part time, and how the other three in the office were always in and out with their stuff, and you’re looking for a job now, right? How would you like to work with us part time, at least for the summer and perhaps longer, so we won’t have to worry about hiring on a new, non-ARC person?

Fortuitous, to say the least. I know both Disaster and AFES (I was volunteering two weeks out of four as it was); our Americorps guy is well-grounded in both, as well; and I still have not only Beth but Stacey as go-to people.

If Stacey was still working here she’d have called me out without question - I was kind of her go-to girl. What can I say - I’m a sucker for “I need a favor”. I’m pretty sure, though, that I was called out last night because I’m now paid staff.

Which is a question I’m going to bring up later, because I know the rest of the staff receives a salary and not a wage, and because I’m not sure whether or if or how I should be paid for the “extra stuff”, as opposed to the “regular on-call stuff”. Like I said, I love this. I really, really do, and I’ve been doing it for free for the past year or more. Wages for 20 to 25 hours a week is fine for me; I just don’t know how to figure it right now.

I’m sorry!

DAT is Disaster Action Team.

When people think of “Red Cross” and “disaster” they tend to think of Hurricane Isabel and Oklahoma tornadoes. The volunteers who travel to those are classifed as DSHR - Disaster Service Human Resources. In order for a Red Cross volunteer to qualify for DSHR he or she must, among other things, first serve as a DAT member - single family fires, for example, or the thingie I went to last night. The big stuff gets the headlines, but the (comparatively) nickle-and-dime stuff sucks up a HUGE amount of our budget: Last night’s tally is going to be in the $5,000-7,500 range.

On to this morning!

Gosh, I got tired fast! I should’ve tried to catnap a bit this morning.

The bad news is that it was a sewage leak, but the really really good news is that everyone is home and fed and, presumably, sleeping. Either that or chatting about the excitement. :wink:

We started breakfast around 7, and then sat around and waited and waited and waited some more for news. Some clients went back to their rooms and napped, but the majority stayed in the meeting room, just chatting.

One lady was the sister-in-law of the guy who stood up for my deceased grandparents at their wedding. That was cool. :slight_smile: 94 year old retired high school teacher who taught at some vo-tech schools after her high school retirement. Active volunteer in local theater who slowed down only, I think, because the cancer treatments she had two years ago took a bit out of her. She and I talked for a long time.

There was another guy whose father and uncle were both on the police force in the Cities, and he followed in their footsteps after four (apparently) insufferable Navy years. And HE had a buddy who kept threatening to give me a ride in his motorized wheel chair. :smiley:

And then a tall skinny guy who, every time I came around with coffee or juice or whatever, insisted on steak. I finally offered him a pen. He upped the ante with a pen AND a pencil. I trumped him with paper. :smiley: :smiley:

Around 10 the ladies over at the other table were getting a little squirrelly: “More coffee?” “No, but I could do with a bit of wine,” said one. “Ooooh, do you have any gin up there?” said another. “I’d like a margarita,” said a third. My kinda girls.

Last night as we were sending people off to bed we gave out comfort kits (some basic necessities - soap, toothpaste/brush, deoderant, notebook and pen, etc.). This morning I found out one guy didn’t receive one - I think he was bicycling back and forth between the ALF and the hotel (three blocks, maybe) and missed out. I gave him a little scrap of paper: “I.O.U. one (1) comfort kit. <signed> chique”.

So now I’m home, and I’m drinking the first of two beers, and then I am going to pass out and sleep like the dead.

I love this. :slight_smile:

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One of the women we helped in that gas leak a few weeks ago was a retired nun. The week after the incident she wrote a nice letter to the local paper thanking the hotel and the fire department and the Red Cross for the way they were helped during the incident. It was one of those thank you letters that make you want to write a thank you note back thanking the writer for writing the thank you note, y’know?

Anyhow. She was hit by a freakin’ car last week and landed herself in the hospital! That’s not fair! That’s NOT how karma is supposed to work! Karma can bite me!

6

Very nice, Chique!

I think your karma may already be upon you…your love of life and helping others gives you a wonderful outlook. One that can’t be bought, except with the heart, as you show so well.

We are lucky to have people like you.

Enjoy life!