Second Step

[volksdragon]

I have training for the Red Cross Emergency Disaster training class scheduled for September 10th. All the classes before that were filled up.

I think I'd better start getting a little more exercise and sleep.

Comments

[jaiwyn.livejournal.com]

HOoray! Yes, pleanty of rest.

[cogshiftingman.livejournal.com]

I very much admire you.

awesome :)

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

Good for you. You rock.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

So what made you decide to commit to this, as opposed to simply making a donation worth two-weeks pay? (this is not meant to sound the least bit snarky.)

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

I can donate money. It'll help. It's not enough for me. Donating money buys STUFF, or sends someone else down to NOLA. Why should I buy someone else to go down there, when I am in a position to go down and do it myself?


If someone in my social and economical position isn't in a position to do something like this, who really is, except the super-rich? siercia and I are not RICH, but we can survive missing a paycheck of mine. Will it mean putting off a vacation, or remodeling our back bedroom? Maybe. But we still have a HOUSE to live in, WATER to drink, and a FAMILY to come home to.

I make a lot of jokes about feeling and being old, but I'm not. I'm young. I'm healthy. I don't mind nasty dirty work. I can't think of many people more likely to go and do something like this than me, so I guess it just makes sense to me that I should go.

It's not like I grew up rich, or entitled, or anything like that, but I've always been comfortable. Even when siercia and I were just out of college, and living "paycheck to paycheck" in Worcester, we were never starving, or without heat or shelter. These people have nothing left.

I've never done something like this, on this scale. I like to help people. I've done charity events before, and I have helped run charity events. I have some useful skills. I can run chainsaws and power tools. I can do minor automobile repair/upkeep, and drive anything from a motorcycle to a car a large truck, probably even a semi-truck, with a few minutes practice. I have driven a bulldozer before. I can cook food. I can do basic electrical repairs. I know boat use and safety. I know basic first aid skills. I have basic smallscale fire-extinguishing skills. I have participated in Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue command missions. I know how to operate a radiation counter. I can lift heavy things.

Any ONE of those skills would probably make me useful. I don't feel I can hang out up here and just watch and hope.

siercia and I used to help. When we were in College, we volunteered at the local Planned Parenthood shelter one day every weekend. We ran the local STD and contraception clinic on campus. We went to political marches and charity events. And then, when we graduated, and it was harder to get news of such events, and we had to support ourselves working, we stopped doing these things on the scale we used to. We got comfortable. It got hard to "take time out of our lives" to do things like this.

If I can't take time out of our lives for what could be the largest natural disaster in modern US history, well, when else?

[kpht.livejournal.com]

is that just for local stuff, or are they sending you right out to NOLA? i looked on the web site and they said in order to be deployed for disaster relief efforts like this, you need to sign up with your local chapter and do relief stuff there, first. that sounded kind of interesting, and i'd be totally down with local emergency relief (from fires and such).

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

They are doing Emergency disaster response training, and it was listed on the www.bostonredcross.org site as a training for deployment to Hurricane Katrina Response areas. the guy I talked to didn't say anything about having to do local work first. This was for being sent out to LA/MS/AL/etc.
He DID say, however, that the deployment could take place anytime from 1 week to 6 months in the future.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

coooooool. good luck! i really want to do that, but it's just not feasible, i don't have the time i can take off from work.

i'm thinking i gotta step up and do something positive because all i do is sit on my ass and contribute nothing to the world.

maybe i'll do a big brother/big sister thing, that's more my style.

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

You can volunteer with the Red Cross locally to organize people and supplies going to Katrina.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

i should do that.

[pantsie.livejournal.com]

*cheers*

Go you!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

You totally encouraged me to bite the bullet and tell my Supervisor I wanted to ditch work and go - and it WORKED.

I heart you.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

Where did you go to sign up to be sent to New Orleans. I'm joining you. I have no money to offer right now. But I do have my own 2 hands and all the time in the world right now. If it will make a difference, I will give.

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

I found it. I've submitted the form with my offer to volunteer and a list of info about my carpentry, electrical, and CPR/First Aid skills. How long did it take before you heard from someone?

[string-on-desk.livejournal.com]

woohoo! tell me how it goes! I'm actually thinking of taking my winter break and going down to help with habitat for humanity