13 20 70359 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I had just turned on the tv and heard the horrified voices of the newscasters and as my husband came down the stairs then the second plane hit the second tower. We spent the whole day watching the news and following the story. It was unbelievable and so hard to imagine what was going on. Wondering if and when and where these people would strike again. RC Story: Response As I am a volunteer with the local Red Cross chapter and a memeber of the DSHR I knew that with the magnitude of this I would be called to respond so I began preparing a suitcase so that I would be ready when the call came. It took two days to get arrangements made to get there, changes, etc. then I had to overnight in PA before arriving in NY on Sat. I was in NY on assignment thru the 8th of Oct. I hope that I never have to respond to a disaster of this magnitude again! It was such an overwhelming experience for all of us that were on assignment. I was proud to have been able to help. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story23.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-02-17 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.228.148.22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I woke up to my roommate screaming that New York had been bombed and that we were next. I was thinking, no, that is not possible. I then turned on the T.V and saw the second plane hit the tower, i was in shock. I screamed, i have friends in there. I did not know what to do. I called my parents and other friends and family. I tried to call New York, but the phone lines were jamed. I was like, i have lost three best friends in one day, this is not good. After two long days of not knowing if my friends were alive or not, i found out that two were and one was missiing. I cried for her and for everyone else that was lost that day. To this day, her family and i still do not have a body to lay to rest. Just two limbs of her were found. Saying goodbye to that was not the same as a body, i guess i do not have the closure that i thought i would. Her famimly laid her to rest in Colorado, were we grew up for three years together. It was the worst month of my life. Every day i miss her, but i relized that she did not suffer becasue she was on the floor where the plane hit. I will never get to hear her laugh, cry of just joke anymore. At least i know she is another angel watching over me and her family along with all the other Sept 11 vitums. I truly miss you Julie. I know you are watching me. RC Story: Response I responded by holding a candle light visual at my college and then orginzing a food drive to send to New York and Washington. I went to a church where they holding a visual for all the police, fire and paradimics in Lincoln IL, and hugged as many as i could and thanked them for the work they do. I helped me friends school send blankets, teddy bears and bandanas for the children and firemen out in New York going though the rubble. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that i could help make a difference. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story29.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-04-21 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.174.133.69 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story An e-mail chronicle from the two weeks following 9/11 Tue's. Sept 11th 2001 Sorry you were so worried. I was not able to call you there , as a lot of phones were out. and I would get a very fast busy signal.. I did get through to Mom, and she called Laurie, so You more than likely Know by now that we are Alive. Ben spoke to Chantal But I have not been able to get through to her .. when I call there I get that fast busy signal.. So pass this on to everyone If you can We are as OK as we can be under the circumstances.. This is unfathomable ,It is to much too take in ... I have a fireman friend (Steve Olson) who is missing .. all we can do is pray. It touches all of our lives on such a profound level.. .... I was just in the World Trade Center yesterday ! I can't believe this.. Thousands of people thousands of lives.. this country will never be the same again. They came in through the back door and hit everyone .. not only physically, but on all other levels (at least, I believe their intent was to terrorize, but also to demoralize). That they were able to hit the Pentagon like that .. the linchpin of our security system. I had just arrived at work when I found out about it from Elaine,the owner's daughter, she called looking for her father. Her husband works next door to the World trade Center.. She was understandably pretty shaken up, as she couldn't reach him on his cell phone. He was OK fortunately, he , along with thousands of others walked home across the B'klyn bridge! Steve, My employer could not get out of the city at all, all the cell phones were out. I sat there at work at my drawing table, by myself all day, listening to the radio. I could not take it in. .. and it suddenly really hit me, about 2 o'clock .. before that it was too mind boggling to completely take in.. and I started to cry, and cry .. for all of the terrible pain ... the radio is estimating it in excess of 10 thousand people .. Pearl Harbor had a little over 2 thousand killed!! I went into shock again when I finally got home, and actually saw the footage on television, and then I went down by the church and looked at the skyline of New York, and It was like the twilight zone. I was looking at another City ,it was not The New York city Skyline , but some other city .. and this was not the USA but somewhere else. Our hearts may be broken but our spirits will not be!! Love Bea Wen. Sept, 12th 2001 The terrible events yesterday were predicted in the bible ( Revelations) and in the writings of a prophet named Ellen G. White, She lived and wrote around 1890 she was given visions that described events, She wrote, (and I don't have a book here to quote exactly) " The tallest buildings would be hit by giant balls of fire from the sky and would fall into themselves as if made of matchsticks" Events to come are really terrible, and we are like people in the days of the flood , we don't want to hear it. We want to go on with our lives and not listen to the prophecies that are coming true ... Myself included! and when I think of my tiny little life in the grand scheme of things I understand a little better why the Bible says "All is Vanity" I believe we have to use everything we've got, everything God gave us, to fight this monstrous evil.. and pray for more strength than we have, because God is all powerful and knows the beginning and the end. In the final analysis our salvation depends on him. although it's really hard to let go of the vanity and put it in Gods hands. I am not at all strong without God, it( my own strength ) is all an illusion that I feed myself to get me through this life. I do a lot of things in my life that I know are wrong, and have in my past done many things that I know are wrong .. I try to live my life right but my strength is vanity. I know this is true. Our only true hope is in our prayers for each other, and in God's grace. Many people in recent years, (Especially), have been so self involved, and only concerned with their own pleasure and gain, me, me, me, even in their charity, and in supporting politicly correct causes, the driving motivation has been how they are viewed by others. Image rather than substance. I believe the reasons we do things are important. God is the one who sees our heart. Please Pray for my friend, Steve Olson who is one of the hero firemen missing. Pray also for his wife and young children, one of his children is recovering from Cancer. Pray that she has the strength to deal with whatever she needs to deal with, those in such terrible pain need our prayers. Love Bea. May God help us all. Amen. Thurs. Sept. 13th. 2001 You have such a good heart.. My sweet niece .I see that. I know if you were here you would be right in the center of things .. from choice not because you had to be. I don't think things will ever be normal here again ! At least not normal in the sense of being the same as they were. I doubt that there are many people in New York, or even the tri State area, who do not know someone. who was lost. They are talking full scale war now.. part of me wants to get as far away from New York as humanly possible. (which,with all of the lock downs isn't very far these days) and the other part wants to fight!! I just think that most people do not have any Idea, really of who we are dealing with.. The totally alien thought process that brought this whole thing about.. I believe, these people have had many years in which to hone their skills in psychologically demoralizing techniques. They are masters at the subtle and not so subtle twists such as using our own planes to attack us, training their suicide pilots in our country! Twisting the meaning of freedom and democracy into an ugly weapon to use against us! Laughing at us while they Kill thousands of defenseless people!! and the scariest part is the complete lack of respect for any life including their own. This was planned for many years.. I heard a rumor , I don't know if it is true, but I heard that just before the attacks there were no cabs at all in the area of the twin towers. Food for thought if its true.??? ?And if the cab drivers knew.. why didn't the CIA? ?? They want to use our own openness , freedom and belief system against us ... I believe that they are not afraid of retaliation, this is what they want.. they want to plunge us into a totally chaotic 3rd world war. They believe, they are on a holy mission and are being directed by God !! therefor they have no fear of death, and no wish to preserve life on earth. They only want to be around long enough to destroy every one .. that to me is really scary. I am so filled with conflicting emotions, and struggling so hard to think clearly . Feeling such deep Pain for those lost, and those left behind in pain, shock, terror and confusion ( NOT HELPLESSNESS ) we are not helpless. I personally feel jagged, my pain is fresher , because of my own resent horrendous losses) I write about my feelings because its easier for me to write than it is to articulate and it is my own personal way of organizing my mixed up emotions and dealing with things. That and Prayer... God help us All.... The only good thing that came out of this is the way that people are rallying to help one another, and boost moral. Everyone it seems , is doing everything they can, to help out and aid the victims and their familles.. and all of the people working so tirelessly at the site to try to save lives.. if they can. I am only an artist, such a superficial skill in a time like this, When all priorities change. Candle light vigil tomorrow night at 7 EST throughout the country!! love Bea Sept. 14th 2001 I just came in a few minutes ago, it was heart warming to see how many people were outside for the candlelight vigil! . Ben has Volunteered, he has been unable to get into the city to work. there is still no ferry service except for emergency personnel. He is helping to organize and distribute supplies for the fire fighters etc., blankets, flashlights, socks, gloves, canine food, etc. It feels good to be able to do something to help out. Everyone feel like they want to do something. (I have racked my brain to find ways I can help in this crisis) Then I thought of all of the things I have in the basement, a lot of Cameron's Books, CDs, games, toys, My huge drafting table ( which is wonderful but too big for the apt! ) and other things. So .. I am trying to organize a yard sale to raise money for victims families. After Cameron died, other than his personal things, I don't wish to keep anything,, His death was so painful to Us) I think Cameron would like that his things are being sold for this cause . I work here on Staten Island so don't have the commuting problem, ???I have been able to continue working all week, by the way my new hrs are Tues. Through Sat. I have Sunday and Mondays off. I hope I can get it all organized for this coming week. Thank You for your prayers, they help. God bless you and keep you safe. Love Bea Mon. Sept. 17th. I have sat here, and cried and cried as I watched and listened to the horrors unfold on TV and radio,(I'd almost rather not see it). I can't imagine what it must be like for those that must deal on a daily basis, with sorting through the rubble separating body parts from twisted metal... a different kind of strength.. (than I feel I have ). We have neighbors (in our building) who are dealing directly with it.. an EMS worker, a Nurse, and an FBI agent.. all of whom had been working double shifts for the first few days, The FBI agent still is. I haven't seen her in days, (just heard her, getting ready to leave for work noises, at odd times, like midnight). The glut of emotions, since this horror began, have been so intense,and conflicting .. one feels guilty, about feeling good, about anything... My friend Marian, and her husband Brian ( EMS worker & Nurse) went out to Dinner last night, trying to get a small measure of relief from the intense stress.. Brian has been working at the Staten Island Land Fill ( closed down last year reopened for this ) which is where they are taking everything picked up from ground zero.. Things have to be separated and labeled. Body parts found and separated from the rest ot the debris.. God help us.. Marian told me she felt guilty about feeling good, ( the one emotion that has been in short supply lately!) I have felt numb since yesterday.. unable to cry any more (it seems, for the moment the well is dry) then I feel guilty about that! Knowing that We must move on, must try to reestablish some sort of normal activity schedule and life. It is hard.. just when you feel good, or laugh about something , you hear or see another tale of horror. ( A TALE OF TWIN TOWERS) It does help to be doing something towards the effort. The yard sale for next weekend. ( the proceeds will go towards a disaster relief fund) I made up a flier and put it all over the neighborhood. The reaction has been positive if I can get more people to contribute.? Maybe we can raise some real money. The President does seem to have a handle on this situation .. I don't think we have a choice.. We must fight this thing.. But this will be unlike any war the world has seen to date. We have to know the nature of the scorpion we are dealing with, or maybe it's more like a multi-headed hydra!! Ben just came home.. he said the city is beginning to smell of death,It is like a giant open grave, and it will get worse before it gets better. There is two or three miles of water between us and Manhattan.. Little by little bit by bit we will get through this. but in getting through it, I hope we never forget. This is a gentler, kinder, and more sober City now and apparently there has been less crime.. murders are down, domestic violence is down.. child abuse is down... there have been a lot more bomb threats though. It seems to have impacted a lot of businesses, large and small! From major airlines, to all of the small businesses in lower Manhattan ( below 14th street) that have been closed since it happened.. 20 thousand lay off's in United Airlines alone! so many people connected with finance worked in and around the Twin Towers.. we too , have had several cancellations of appointments in the past week.. a lot of the businesses that had offices in the twin towers, have moved out of state to N J or elsewhere . I don't know when the dominos will stop falling.. God bless you and yours. Love Bea Mon Sept. 24rd. 2001 Hi Chanti Well the yard sale went so well .. I am going to do it again next Sunday! we raised $210.75! I sold a couple of my prints, and an angel I have to get some more made up for next weekend. I am going into the city today for the first time since this horror happened .. I'll email you later . Love Mom. Mon. Sept. 24th. 2001 Well, the city is very strange now.. the military is all over the place you see soldiers in fatigues walking in groups, street corners and subway stations are very well policed now. especially the downtown area, and the mood is very subdued.. You know how New York has always had that kind of kinetic energy? well it's like the whole city had .. not just the air knocked out of it but, it's been wounded, horribly. and people are scared. The other night we had a thunderstorm and there was an especially loud clap of thunder Ben woke up, and Shot out of bed.. he said his first thought, was that they sent a missile.. We are really trying to get back to normal, but I think it will take a long while, and things will never ever really feel safe again.. and it all still has the feeling of being on a movie set or a bad dream , we are just not waking up from.. So many things, are so radically altered.. and so heartbreaking.. I'll call you soon.. Love Mom RC Story: Response Held two Yard Sales to raise money. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story6.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.12.96.139 Notes Notes about this item. An interesting chronicle. Inspired to volunteer. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story September 11, 2001 was a perfect September morning. Perfect weather, perfect blue sky, not a bad day to be going to work. I arrived to my office at 101 Park Avenue and stepped off the elevator on the 45th floor. I immediately knew something was wrong since the blinds were dramatically pulled back and a few indivdiuals were looking out the window in disbelief. The receptionist cautioned me before I looked out the windows and saw the twin towers engulfed in flames. The planes had both hit and now the towers were burning. Considering the clearness of that beautiful day, I had a perfect view to the horror. One senior partner remarked that the towers would hold "they were built to handle the worse." I didn't believe him. From the view I had, and the flames that I saw, I couldn't imagine how they could possibly hold. I was able to call my dad by phone who told me that the news was reporting a terrorist attack. He was watching the news on tv and relaying the news of the attack at the Pentagon, as well as the downed plane in Pennsylvania. Some time later I heard a scream and ran over to the window. It was at that moment the first tower started to fall. It was at that moment I said a prayer for all those I feared dead. It was also at that moment I decided to leave for home. RC Story: Response I served as an American Red Cross volunteer for the 9/11 recovery effort. I worked the midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift at Ground Zero. I felt it was the very least I could do. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story39.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.149.217.162 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story At the time I worked evenings for the Disney's Lion King Production at the Hollywood Pantages Theater. I was at home sleeping when my husband ran inside and woke me up screaming turn on the news. My husband and I watched the news in terror not quite comprehending what had just happened! My stomach started to hurt, and I started to feel anxious and thinking that there has to be something I can do. My husband and I immediately went to our parents house; we both had an overwhelming feeling to be with our families. I can remember watching the T.V. almost all day. The next day I realized there has to be something I can do. I updated my resume and faxed it to the American Red Cross, and asked Human Resources what I could do for them. I was shortly then hired as a Blood Donor Recruiter. I am still working for the Red Cross educating the public the importance of donating blood before a tragedy occurs, and coordinating blood drives in the local community. RC Story: Response RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story36.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-08-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.6.242.187 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I was in shock for most of the day. I was most worried about my Aunt who worked for Marsh Co. I knew she went to work most days by 8am. After I saw the first plane hit the N.WTC I tried to call her in the South Tower. I tried and tried and it seemed like forever and could never get through. All I could do was sit, glued to the TV. When I saw the South Tower collaspe I got this sharp pain and I felt like I was going to pass out. At that point I knew where she was. I didn't even know my Uncle was there. His office was not located in the Towers but, he had meetings there often. Nothing personal was ever found to confirm he was there however, his agenda from work read "meeting WTC 8:30am". RC Story: Response I lost both my Aunt and Uncle, my Dad's sibblings, in the WTC. My Aunt in the South Tower and my Uncle in the North. Along with family, I also lost numerous friends I made while working in NY/NY area. I went to Ground Zero as soon as air traffic was up in Sept of 2001. I am a Red Cross Volunteer in Richmond, VA and I helped as a Volunteer at Ground Zero. I helped feed and water the search dogs, I handed out meals to the rescue workers, etc. I will never forget the ones who lost their lives and the impact it made on me, my family, the other families who lost loved ones and friends and all the world on September 11th, now and forever. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story3.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-10 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 68.57.115.213 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story My name is DONNA EDELEN/SCOTT and iam an AMERICAN RED CROSS VOLUNTEER for the DISASTER/MENTAL HEALTH TEAM. I worked the Crisis LINE following the catastrophe of SEPTEMBER 11th. RED CROSS received many phone calls, some were calling about loved ones that they couldn’t locate. I remember a lady calling saying her neice and nephew were missing, they were both employed at the PENTAGON. Another person called about a close relative missing that was employed at the WORLD TRADE CENTER. Some were calling in a state of disbelief just asking the question WHY DID SUCH A HORRIBLE THING HAPPEN and what could they do. Many people called wanting to make donations of food and clothing and to volunteer their time to help locate victims in NEW YORK. Some callers were asking how safe was our country and how safe was our cities and what should they do to help their families be safer. YES, the catastrophe of SEPT 11th touched me as well as everyone else. I remember before i went down to the headquarters to do MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELLING, that I too had moments of tears and disbelief and feelings of being POWERLESS and being stripped of my FREEDOM. I knew if we as a NATION was to recover, we must come together as we had never before and we must share each others strength and the belief that we would prevail. When I volunteered I felt LESS HELPLESS it was the beginning of a HEALING PROCESS. When TRAGEDY hits of that MAGNITUDE all other issues are of very little importance and during that time we were a NATION that was UNITED and in GRIEF. Time does HEAL but SCARS remain, I have CONCERNS and FEARS like anyone else, I NOTICE PLANES more than before and I dont take my FREEDOM for GRANTED and I feel ROBBED of LIFE as I had ONCE KNOWN IT but I look forward to TOMORROW and even more PROUDER of being an AMERICAN. RC Story: Response RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story9.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-10-02 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.168.76.62 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story We had just taken our first breakfrom Istep and a teacher came in crying and everyone knew something had happenedwe just didn't know what. Without saying a word she turned on the t.v and we watched in disbelief as the second plane hit. When I heard about the pentagon and PA I knew I had to help... I felt a part of me crumble everytime I saw the damage or saw a repeat of the plane hitting. RC Story: Response My friend Amber and I decided to raise money and I got ahold of my local chapter and we set donation cans around our small town of not even 1000 people...We raised $511.97 in a month. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story41.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-10-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 165.139.65.1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story The events of 9/11 have led to many community celebrations of remembrance and reflection. In one small town in Pennsylvania the program sponsored by the local high school involved reading letters from people who serve at the front lines during times of crisis. My God childs mother asked me to write a letter for her to read at that event and the main text of this paper is a copy of my letter to Lara. October 5, 2001 Dear Lara, Your mom asked me to write a letter that could be used as part of the upcoming program at your school. She thought folks there might be interested in the reflections of a tired and deeply saddened American Red Cross (ARC) Disaster Mental Health (DMH) volunteer who has been helping out since the terrorist tragedy struck our nation. September 11th began as just another day for most Americans. Things changed quickly, though, as the hideous terrorist plot began to unfold. I was in my office at the Northampton County Mental Health office that morning helping several other staff members complete a physical office move that had begun the day before. We were positioning desks, file cabinets, and other pieces of office furniture. Someone got word that there had been a plane crash into the World Trade Center in NY City and my coworkers scrambled to get our TV set working to see the news. I simply keep moving furniture. Before too long the office was buzzing as a second plane crashed into the second Tower, and one hit the Pentagon, and another had crashed in western PA. Most work came to a standstill as more and more coworkers were watching the news or were trying to contact family members and friends. I kept doing what I could to complete the office move. My office mates kept passing by and telling me headlines that seemed more and more surreal as events unfolded and the towers began to collapse. Some may have though it odd that I kept working on my tasks for the day. Others knew I'd already taken a phone call from the Red Cross, placing me on alert to travel wherever I was needed, as soon as my destination could be determined. I have been a disaster relief volunteer for over 10 years and I am a member of ARC's Aviation Incident Response (AIR) Team. Our role is to support family members and everyone else involved in the rescue/recovery process when such incidents occur. Until I was dispatched, continuing the physical activity of the office move was something concrete I could do to help my own office staff as much as I could, before I left the area. By noon our County offices were closed. I went home and packed, finally watching some TV coverage. Folks in the disaster services field plan for "worst case" scenarios and yet no one imagined this could happen. By the time my kids got home from school, I'd gotten my assignment. I was to drive to the Johnstown area to support the relief operation for the families of those lost on United Flight 93 - the "heroes" flight on which the passengers managed to stop the terrorists before they reached their intended target. For the next 12 days, I served as the Coordinator of the Family Assistance Center (FAC). The FAC is a "safe haven" spot where family members can come together and share their thoughts, feelings, and memories with one another. There they can also talk to mental health workers and members of the clergy, doing so in a secured place designed to protect their privacy. Many prefer avoid the media, lawyers, and any others who might further victimize them at a time when they are quite vulnerable. Part of our role is to organize family member visits to the crash site, and these are usually followed by a multi-faith memorial service. Most surviving family members need to visit the site - a visit that helps them accept their loss and begin to move forward with their suddenly altered lives. Disasters (and other traumatic life events) will always change us, but they need not damage us. Our work in disaster relief is based upon the fact that people are incredibly strong and resilient. Each of us builds character as we work our way though events such as these. Gradually the victims retake control of their lives and shift from feeling like victims to feeling like survivors. About 500 family members and close friends of those lost on Flight 93 were served by our ARC team. Helping us serve them were the warm wishes and prayers of people all over the world. We received a marvelous array of flowers, cards, banners, gift baskets, comfort kits, and letters of support. Especially helpful were the touching messages from innocent children, some of whom attend a school that was near the crash site. These things all gave great comfort to the families and, when we closed the FAC, these items became part of the permanent memorial to those brave souls who lost their lives while protecting the lives of others. My experiences with mass casualty incidents always sadden me (something that generally hits us as we end our work) and this was no exception. In fact, this one was worse for me than usual. I cried off and on, all the way home from western PA. For several days thereafter, I found myself having what I've joking dubbed "random acts of crying" triggered by certain songs, pictures, or news reports. That ran its course but, as I write this letter, I'm tearing up again. I chose to write this for you as a way to pass my time while on a bus ride to NY City. I've had two weeks rest and now I'm on my way to join the larger, ongoing ARC operation there. Disaster work gives people an interesting perspective on life. For instance, when someone works as many major disasters as I have, some of the pettiness of day-to-day activities of living can be more easily ignored and it's easier to keep focused on what's important. During times of tragedy, one thing that is very important is support - support from family members, support from friends, support from communities of faith, and support from others who care enough to share something of themselves when people are in need. I'm truly privileged to be able to help out as I do when terrible things like this happen. Others may think me a bit strange (or crazy) to give up my time and volunteer as I do. The fact is, the most rewarding moments of my professional career have all come to me as an unintended and unexpected result of my volunteer work with ARC. As my bus approaches NY and, in the morning mist I can now see the altered skyline at the southern end of this great city. I find myself thinking about the 1000s of people who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones - people who never got to finish living out their dreams. Some of them also may never have experienced the joy of helping others who needed help in a time of crisis. Please encourage the audience members to let go of any animosity they harbor toward others and avoid putting off showing loved ones they care. Life is too precious a commodity to squander. As the events of 9/11 have shown us, it can be taken from us in an instant. And please encourage the audience to share some of their time, talents, and treasure helping others. They will, in turn, find they get back far more than they give. Love, Uncle John RC Story: Response Postscript The combined experiences of working in PA and NY were, for me, an awesome reminder of humanity at its best and its worst. As someone who enjoys writing, I always tend to begin my own search for meaning in stressful events via written reflection. Rather than write things that would be too upsetting for my goddaughter and her schoolmates, I shared only a few things in my letter and I tried to keep a positive focus. The following paragraphs offer a broader picture of my work and some of my more personal reactions to it. On 10/5 I traveled to NY City and began 15 days work as the Deputy Officer (second-in-charge) for the American Red Cross (ARC) Disaster Mental Health (DMH) function for the World Trade Center (WTC) operation. There, I supervised several other Assistant Officers, as we continued to manage the efforts of some 1875 DMH workers (1500 spontaneous local volunteers and 375 National ARC volunteers) who were involved to that point in time. From 9/11 to 10/19 there were over 73,000 DMH contacts made by these workers with family survivors, friends, rescue/recovery team members, construction / cleanup workers, and fellow members of the various disaster relief teams. I was struck by the size and scope of the relief effort; despite having so many people to help, we needed more. Standing at ground zero and viewing the horror, I found myself thinking that the TV coverage did not properly depict the magnitude of the devastation, nor the great needs of the victims' families, coworkers and friends. The Family Assistance Center, located on Pier 94, was as big as several jumbo jet hangers. In addition to the large group of ARC workers, there were people from many government agencies, social service organizations, support groups, etc. There were therapy dogs and their handlers working the room, in addition to all the other supports. Three or four site visits for families were run from there daily. People were taken by ferry boat/water taxi to a dock near ground zero and then walked in to the viewing location. NY also had many other work sites including our headquarters (HQ) office, eight Service Centers (at peak), kitchens, warehouses, lots of mass care emergency response vehicles, a Casualty Contact Unit (aka Integrated Care Team), and two Respite Centers (RC). These RCs were for recovery workers, police, fire, and National Guard personnel, etc. who are working on the cleanup effort. They could eat, nap, get a massage, watch TV, surf the net, get first aid, talk to clergy and DMH, etc. Everyone involved was doing superb work. In retrospect, I feel the Flight 93 operation was clearly the finest assignment I've ever had with ARC. My team there consisted of a superb group of volunteers, many of whom were on their first national assignment. The members immediately grasped their duties, dove in, functioned as a team, did whatever it took, and successfully completed the difficult mission. I was disappointed and even angry, at times, while working in NY, that things were not working as smoothly as they had in PA. In NY we had many workers who were causing additional and unnecessary problems, rather than being helpful by letting their own needs supersede those of the operation. For instance, there were some folks who did not seem to have the patience and/or flexibility to allow them to be successful in something this complex a problem that arises in all large operations. The most troubling to me, though, were people who felt they had wasted their time and their "trauma expertise" in coming to NY, if they could not work right at ground zero. They had forgotten the parts of the ARC training that stressed the importance of DMH tasks at every work setting and/or they somehow lost the vision of our overall helping mission. Luckily, I did get to meet many folks who were fine examples of the same spirit and dedication that Id seen in my Western PA team members, and that helped get me through the challenges posed each day by those who were the malcontents and troublemakers. There are many lasting memories from these events. One will be of standing next to several representatives of the Salvation Army (SA) during the second large memorial service for Flight 93 and "passing the peace" (shaking hands and saying "peace be with you") with them. Sometimes there is a rivalry between the ARC and the SA but not at a time like this. Another series of Flight 93 memories is of our caravans of buses traveling in a motorcade to the crash site prior to the memorial services. Along our route we saw many patriotically decorated homes, many with memorial displays and signs in their yards. There were police stopping traffic at every major intersection. The officers would always come to attention and salute our passengers as we passed. There was also a larger memorial set up in the small town nearest the crash site and beside it there was always a crowd of people holding supportive signs and waving flags. These simple acts of reverence had me in tears each time we passed. In PA and in NY we were able to draw strength from the many cards, letters, prayers, signs, banners, toys (especially the compassion bears), miscellaneous gifts, and floral arrangements that poured in from everywhere, and I cherish those memories. There were some scary moments too, especially for my family (I tend to generally enjoy a robust sense of healthy denial that I will be ever at-risk in my disaster relief work). As soon as the events of 9/11 began to unfold, I wanted to go somewhere and help out. My wife and kids accept that, but they were really glad I initially went to the PA site rather than NY, fearing there was more potential risk there. By the time I did go to NY, they were more comfortable that things were safe there. That feeling was short-lived, though, once the war began, as the National Guard presence there expanded and anthrax scares began. I got to experience one of those firsthand when, on my second-last day in town, our ARC HQ building was evacuated and I found myself in the potentially contaminated group of early-risers whod gotten in and had breakfast in a cafeteria where some suspicious, sticky white powder had turned up. We were quarantined for a few hours while a HAZMAT crew examined the scene and then everyone was allowed back in the building. Officials took our local and home contact information in case it turned out to be the real thing and that meant I had to tell my wife and kids in case anyone called there about it. They took it better than I imagined they would and, thankfully, it was not anthrax. Since returning from my ARC DMH assignments at the WTC operation and in Western PA, I've especially welcomed the opportunities I've had to debrief, support, and thank others for serving and to be debriefed/supported/thanked myself. In addition to that peer support, I want to stress the value of written expression, which is extremely important for both its cathartic, self-debriefing nature and, when the writings are shared, its educational and supportive benefits. Ive noticed that more and more people seem to be taking advantage of personal e-mail messages and postings to e-mail listserve groups. This public sharing offers stress inoculation to those considering joining the work and provides a great deal of comfort and peer support to all who have already been out there doing this difficult and yet personally rewarding work. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story12.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-10-08 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.173.10.76 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I have submitted information about my 9/11/01 work with interntional victim families of the World Trade Center. It may be of additional interest to know of the work done for the first anniversary commemoration services. That report is attached. RC Story: Response ACTIVITY REPORT August 18 September 13, 2002 Robert N. Munson Emergency Service Director Minneapolis Area Chapter American Red Cross ON ASSIGNMENT: International Family Assistance Program 9-11 Memorial Events ARC International Disaster Response Unit August 19 to September 8: Washington DC National Headquarters, American Red Cross September 8 to 13: New York City I was called to this assignment because I am a member of the American Red Cross International Response Team (IRT), a small group of people trained to deal with policies and activities of the ARC during catastrophic international disasters. Additionally I was called because I was one of the IRT team members setting up the original response to bereaved foreign nationals who lost family members on 9-11-01 in the World Trade Center, New York, and also because I am English/Spanish bi-lingual. This year, family members from around the world have been invited by the American Red Cross to come to the United States for condolence visits or memorial services with relatives living in New York. They came last September, and later in October when the city held the first Memorial Service. The travel was separate from the financial support given to each domestic and international family affected by the WTC attack. Families again were invited to New York for the 9-11-02 Memorial Services. Several hundred came, and my primary work group of three people was responsible for some two hundred who were in need of supportive local arrangements including participation in memorial events. Other visitors were part of larger national groups (Japanese, British, Australians, Canadians) whose consulate representatives made many of the local arrangements to supplement the American Red Cross travel arrangements. My specific assignment was to make arrangements for, and work with, the international Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Magan David Adom National Society social workers who had been working locally in their own countries with the issues surrounding the WTC deaths of family members. Workers from the 65 nationalities represented in the WTC deaths were invited, and 32 came to New York on September 9th from 30 countries. Peru had more than one representative. Only the principle direct service worker from each country was invited. It was intended that coming to New York was a working trip for those involved this last year. Much of my three weeks at Red Cross NHQ in Washington was consumed with the program planning for the visit, and international travel and document logistics for each individual traveler. The reason for these National Society workers to come was (1) to be a continuing support to the families who were traveling to New York from their countries, and (2) to assist the American Red Cross in evaluating our international communications and relationships during times of catastrophic disaster response. Our National Society visitors were from: Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, The Gambia, Germany, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Israel, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Thailand, and Venezuela. Everyone was scheduled for a Monday, 9/9/02 arrival in New York, and a Friday, 9/13/02 departure. All were booked into the same hotel. Several of the international staff from NHQ in Washington also attended as these are the staff persons working electronically with the National Society visitors on a regular basis. On Tuesday, 9/10, a five-hour session was held in our hotel which included a lessons learned evaluation session, an American Red Cross recognition of the work done internationally, and an informal reception for networking. The lessons learned was modeled after our usual disaster critique of (1) what did we do, (2) what went well, and (3) what would we do differently next time. I led much of this session bi-lingually. A few of the lessons learned included: (1) systems were set up in the manner of other international disasters which worked, although nothing this expansive had been done before, (2) ARC was efficient enough that it appeared overseas that the American staff was much larger than it was; (3) communication via electronics was rapid, but more could be done 24/7 because of the time-zones, and the international hunger for information, (3) rosters of international responders would be helpful so all participants would know who is working at the time. Many other ideas were generated and noted by the Americans for fine-tuning future responses (all responses were noted by NHQ staff). Wednesday, 9-11, was reserved for families at Ground Zero. Our National Society visitors accompanied families there, or attended memorial services throughout New York. I was designated by the team to be one of the ARC to get Red Cross and government clearance to Ground Zero. This needed to be done at 4:45 am to avoid unauthorized credentialing. With the background of the bag-pipers marching from all boroughs to the WTC site, we returned to hotels where families were staying to help facilitate their transportation and entrance to Ground Zero. I accompanied a Peruvian family and we were invited to be transported on a bus with Australian families. The atmosphere was laden with drama and the eerie hush of thousands of people introverting into their own thoughts. The reading of the names began, and one family at a time left the general area to walk down the ramp into the pit and place flowers in the circle. Bright sunshine spotlighted the swirling dust created by the high winds of the day. Some saw the dust in allegory of heavenly support I recalled the last time I was at this site, and the smoke of destruction was still coming from the pit. Later, much of New York paused for candle vigils in all boroughs, fire stations, remembrance-decorated fences, and at concerts. Thursday, 9-12, I had arranged that our National Society visitors would have a guided harbor tour of New York with six-language headsets. After the heaviness of the last two days, this was a respite and a time for international bonding which was wonderful to see. Many photos were taken of the sites, each other, of the Americans, and of every possible combination of nationalities. The last event of the National Society visit was a private Port Authority tour of the WTC site from the high-security family viewing area. At the end, I was asked by the guide to announce the nationalities of the group. I read each country from my list so that the representative could individually acknowledge their presence at Ground Zero. This was unplanned, but appeared to be a significant highlight of their trip, and one that undoubtedly will be retold to their co-workers around the world. Personal evaluation: although the four weeks was a long and sometimes draining assignment, I felt that I was of direct and positive assistance to the NHQ staff. This was confirmed by the very generous words of gratitude given to me by our National Society visitors, and most importantly by my NHQ co-workers. I routinely told people that I was on loan from Minneapolis, and that it was because of the generosity of our administration, and the talent of my staff that I was able to be gone so long, and assist in this important international work. I now have devoted 7 weeks of this last year away from the chapter for this significant disaster. Additionally at this time I have given over 30 presentations to nearly 2,000 people about the work of the American Red Cross following 9-11. This has all been a period of deep personal satisfaction because of the work accomplished, and additionally has had an undeniable personal affect to my life. Bob RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story15.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-10-27 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.123.125.147 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I was at my desk at the American Red Cross North Central Blood Services building in St. Paul, Minnesota. I actually work for the Tissue Services division of the ARC and I had just arrived for the day. I had been at my desk for maybe 20 minutes when a co-worker came in from her car saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. As we have a World Trade Center here in St. Paul, and there is a small airfield not far from that building, I was initially confused. We turned on the radio to listen for any news reports and that is when I found out there was also a World Trade Center in New York City. The only major building I knew about in NYC was the Empire State building. I was so naïve I had never even heard of the WTC. As we listened to the radio, I thought, With all the tall buildings in that city, Im surprised we havent had this problem before. It was just a matter of time before a plane would accidentally fly into a building. Going about my job, going to other peoples desks, listening to the different radio stations reporting, I thought it odd that they would evacuate the White House because someone had accidentally flown into a building. I started to realize this wasnt just an accident. The Pentagon. The second tower. The crash in Pennsylvania. Would this continue? Were there other missile planes in the air? Guards were posted at the front entrance to the building. I remember a rumor spreading about the fear of package bombs. People went about their work knowing that we would be affected more acutely as the hours went on. I went home on my lunch break and watched the coverage on the television. Replay after replay after replay of the plane striking the second tower. Again and again and again. Thousands of people covered in ash and pulverized cement, completely gray except for the dark streaks streaming from their eyes. The herds of people walking out of Manhattan. I went back to work. By early afternoon, our division of the ARC, Tissue Services (a tissue bank that supplies human tissue for transplantation) began to mobilize to ship skin for grafting to the many burn patients expected to be pulled from the rubble in NYC and Washington DC. As all aircraft were grounded, special arrangements were made to ship the skin tissue under guidelines that allowed organs and other lifesaving transplantable tissues to be shipped via air. We released as many square feet of skin grafts as we could to our distribution office in Virginia, to service both NYC and Washington. We waited for the survivors, just like the rest of the country. As the days went on, we realized those survivors were not to be found. The North Central Blood office and St. Paul Area Chapter are merely across a parking lot from one another. The phones rang constantly for a week and a half. The St. Paul Area Chapter has a blood donor room that had people waiting in line for 4 hours to give blood. There were lines for a week. No one complained about the wait. Two days after the attacks, I heard a jet flying over as I walked from my car into the office. It scared me. Terrified me. There hadnt been a commercial aircraft in the air for two days. I didnt realize how used to the silence I had become. It was a jet from the 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, Minnesota, that was doing reconnaissance over the Twin Cities metro. At times I would look up and see the trails from the engines where the jet had made a tight turn and feel comforted. Someone was keeping watch. I've been wanting to write this down for nearly three years. I'm glad I've gotten the opportunity. RC Story: Response I aided however I could at work as well as donated to the ARC Liberty Fund and the United Way September 11th Fund. I attended two community memorial services. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story38.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.6.235.159 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story RC Story: Response I am a Red Cross Disaster Services volunteer and I worked at a Respite Center at Ground Zero for three weeks in October and November 2001. I made some friends there to whom I've remained close. I wanted to share an e-mail I sent to one of them shortly after my return home. I want people to know that the work affected my whole life, even now two years later. Hopefully this e-mail expresses a little bit of how I and other volunteers were feeling about our experiences: November 28, 2001. Tonight, I thought I had finally run out of tears. I was watching a videotape a friend sent me that contained a segment from a recent episode of "60 Minutes" called "Band of Brothers." It was a story about the FDNY bagpipers and how, by Thanksgiving, they will have played at over 300 funerals and memorial services. They showed a funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral, just like the ones we stumbled upon a couple weeks ago. It could have even been one of those, who knows. It was just too familiar: the casket on the fire truck, the flag hanging between two ladder trucks, the bagpipes playing Amazing Grace. Did you know that they always play Amazing Grace when the casket and the family are going into the church? And I sat there watching it and couldn't cry. I wanted to cry. I tried to cry. But all I felt was this sick, hollow feeling of grief that went beyond tears. And I thought maybe I was finally at a point where the tears won't come so readily or so often. Maybe this was a small victory for me. Then they showed members of the band talking about how the hard part is standing in front of the church while the wife and children are going in. How they can't look at the children because it just tears them up inside. But one guy said what's even more heartbreaking than watching the family go into the church is going in themselves. He said that very few band members will go through the church doors for the service. He said it's just too much, it's too hard to do that. The program then went on to say: "But this day, every single member of the band came prepared to do that for their beloved drummer, their only member to die at the World Trade Center. They called him Bronco. He was 30 years old. He left no parents, no wife, no children. The band was his family. They gathered to, as they say, 'pipe him to Heaven.' Usually one lone piper plays Amazing Grace. Not today. For Bronco, there was a symphony. And when the playing stopped, they all carried their instruments, and their love, through the church doors." I found myself sobbing during this part, and I realized it felt good and right. Why did I think that I should stop crying? These "boys" I've come to think of as mine aren't able to stop crying, so why should I? I want to keep feeling compassion for them for a long, long time. If that means shedding frequent tears, then so be it. It's better than becoming complacent and hardened to everything that's happened. I never want to forget a single minute, a single emotion, from my WTC experience. The whole thing made me a better person at the time, now I have to strive to continue to be that better person for the rest of my life. Maybe having my heart broken just a little every day is part of being that better person. The hardest part about being home is not having someone around who knows exactly how I'm feeling and why I'm feeling it. But only someone who's lived it can do that, and there's no one here who has. I'm getting together next week with the guy from my chapter who worked in the warehouse at Respite 1, but I don't think even he can completely understand. His center was sheltered from the destruction. He never stood on a roof and looked down on the pile. He never walked down the street to work every day and came face to face with the skeletons of those walls. He never sat on his bus after work for over 30 minutes with that horror staring him in the face from a half block away. He never stood in the Oasis and watched 40 men rest with such deep grief etched into their faces that it wasn't even erased in sleep. I'm not in any way trying to diminish his experience, it was just different than mine and I don't think he'll be able to completely relate to what I'm feeling. Maybe Ill have to break his heart just a little. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story8.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 165.189.161.140 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I was watching Good Morning America. I was also recovering from a serious surgery and was unable to bear weight. My youngest soon came home after he had just left for school, with a severe asthma attack. As he walked in the door, the television announced the first plane had struck in New York. Steven was shocked and came running into the room I was in. I spoke what I knew in my heart immediately. "Dear Blessed Mother," I told him. "We must pray." Before we finished the prayer, the second, third, and fourth plane had struck and I explained about Pearl Harbor, and that Sadly, America would never be the same. I spent the next few days feeling like a prisoner of terrorism as I could only sit and watch television, unable to walk. I never felt so helpless in my life. RC Story: Response Two years later I have recovered from a fifth surgery and I am now attending school to become a Registered Nurse. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story4.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.244.76.234 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story It seems like it was just an ordinary day like so many others in high school. One class had just ended and the next class was just coming in when one of the students "Chris" rushed in yelling something has just happened turn on the T.V. Switching from the discovery channel to CNN I sat in horror like the most of us...in true disbelief. The students were silent then crying in what seem to be only minutes. I remember asking God to help me with what I was seening. I remember not loosing control but rather speaking from my heart...If you believe in praying now is the time. If you you want to listen to what is going on...we will. If you want to ask questions you may just do not expect to have all the answers. I believe that at the moment I say a crisis I went into the nurse/shift. Tell them it was ok to pray. To stay healthy because the gift of life "blood" may be needed. And I encouraged them to speak to their parents about was they saw, heard, or felt. It was strange but the year before we had had two very popular young teens die in an auto accident and one child organs had been harvested to allow others to survive they were both my students for 2 years. It all came out on that very day. Students that had lost family members previously and had not had the time to grieve and heal seem to have raw wounds. As Health Occupations students and teacher we made a banner and sent it to New York City to show how much we care and that we were thinking of the survivors and the those who died... RC Story: Response My students wrote to high school students in the Bronks but the post office was not able to deliver that package and I was notified almost 10 months later. We did what we could here locally my making small donations of money to the ARC. The students made a second banner which was rolled out the main hallway at school and signed by all who passed it was taken to NYC by the group of firefighters who were on their way up to the area to help. My students made it a mission to find out as much about what was being done in both the NYC and Washington as possible. They spoke freely about all the people who died in the planes and those who helped crush a plane instead of hitting more targets. The students did well during this time of grief, confusion and unknowns. Some lost family members or knew of someone who knew someone who died. One of the students wrote a beautiful poem on the very day 9/11/2001. One student celebrated her birthday that day and wished a life to be saved as see blew out her candles. Although it was difficult we still tried to work even if it was only 30-40 mins every hour for many weeks. I believe the students learned first hand about the steps in grieving, that some parents can be well to do and loss a job in days. Can somehow growup in hours and think of others before themselves. I saw alot of positive things being done by all of us and I am proud of the part me and my students played in one of our worse disasters of our life times. As a Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) group we had always done alot of Volunteering hours, collecting donations and items for worthy causes. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story34.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-06-28 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 65.32.185.213 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story At 9:00 am I overheard someone on the train say something about a plan hitting the World Trade Center. I continued on my way, not understanding the full impact of the statement. When I arrived at my meeting which was taking place next to the United Nations,the receptionist was watching the news, which was showing live footage of plans flying into the towers. I called my father, who also lives in New York, and told him to meet at Port Authority, since we were scheduled to go out of town. When I left the building and witnessed hundreds of people walking/running uptown, away from the towers, the severity of the plans flying into the towers hit me. I then asked a store clerk to use her phone and called my sister who at the time worked at New York University. She said leaving New York would be impossible, Port Authority is closed/destroyed and I should go home. I called my father back and told him to stay home and that I was going home as well. I ended up walking, being carried by the crowd rather, and managed to make it home. I started cooking as soon as I got home, it comforted me; the images on television were too much to take. I just kept repeating to myself over and over I dont believe this. My comfort zone and security I felt as an American was torn. My sister, her husband and a co-worker walked all the way uptown to my house before continuing on their way. We had dinner in silence and disbelief. That night I had many calls and e-mails from friends and relatives from across the world. RC Story: Response I contacted the American Red Cross, Greater New York Chapter and donated socks, and bottles of water for the responders. I later obtained a position with the American Red Cross, September 11 Recovery Program. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story45.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-03-25 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.6.232.214 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story It was our first day of homeschooling and I had returned a telephone call from my Pastor. He secretary stated that he was home watching the World Trade Center thing. I thought it was a documentary and when I turned on the TV, we were just in time to hear the announcer talking about smoke from across the river...conflicting reports of a Pentagon attack...somewhere in the blur the second plane hit. My 5yr old asked if there were people in there. We sank to the floor, crying and praying for the people inside. When the first tower fell, it was as if the whole world had come to an end. My two little girls were crying and we were just too shocked and upset to move. I was amazed at their understanding of the huge loss of life and their empathy for the families. Then the phone began to ring. My family was afraid that I was where the plane went down in PA. I hadn't even heard of that yet. So much sorrow, so much pain and death in one shot. Never will we be the same. RC Story: Response My husband is a lay minister. We offered support and prayer for those that we came in contact with who needed it for any reason. RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story37.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-08-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.222.248.149 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I experienced the day as a day of numbness and shock. I wondered how our Aviation Incident Response Team was going to be involved. As a member of the Spiritual Care Aviation Incident Team (SAIR)team as it was known then, I realized that this was simply bigger than we had ever been trained for. No amount of preparation for disasters could have prepared us for what we were about to experience in being called in to either one of the sites after 9-11. RC Story: Response I was initially called to be the Night Chaplain at the Brooklyn headquarters in New York, two weeks after 9/11. I was called at 4:30pm PST Wednesday afternoon to consider responding immediately, and by 8am Thursday I was on a 767 from Seattle to JFK. It was a nearly empty flight. No more than 20 or 30 people were on board. Briefing and intake Thursday afternoon and Friday work began. By Sunday, I was moved to support and coordinate the Spiritual Care response at Ground Zero for Respite Centers 1, 2, & 3 as well as the Temporary Mortuary and Disaster Mortuary downtown. By Wednesday, I was asked to be A/O for Spiritual Care and helped coordinate work at Ground Zero and Brooklyn, including assessment of needs at the Staten Island Landfill. We coordinated over 600 spiritual caregivers and the City of New York, quickly realized that they were in deep need of support from Red Cross when it came to Spiritual Care. RC Story: RC Volunteer yes RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story43.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-01-31 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.101.5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Red Cross Museum Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of stories from Red Cross Volunteers who provided emergency response in the wake of the September 11th attacks. RC Story RC Story: Story I was in my second day of orientation at Einstein Medical Center as a new-grad emergency room RN. They let us out early, of course, and my husband came to pick me up. Somehow taking the subway seemed too menacing. My recollection is that without having heard a call to do so, we drove to the Red Cross center on Spring Garden Street to donate blood. I really do think we just KNEW that that's what we were supposed to do, somehow. It turned out everyone else knew that, too, and after a lengthy wait, we were told that we would be contacted if our blood was needed later on. I don't remember disappointment or anything like that--I remember how amazing it was to be with all those other people, and the feeling that in a crisis we had all had the same response. That's the power of the Red Cross, isn't it? RC Story: Response RC Story: RC Volunteer no RC Story: RC Employee no Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource rc_story19.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. unknown Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-01-09 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 80.131.79.68 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story I first heard the news at work when a colleague of mine screamed when she heard the news on radio. I was praying it would not be too devastating and that it should not be Muslim terrorists. I was disappointed on both counts. Later that day, my wife and I were at the local supermarket store checking out our stuff when the cashier passed a sly remark at her. She was wearing the Muslim head scarf. He asked me,"is she a terrorist?". I thought he was joking because my wife is short and looks pretty harmless. So I replied,"no, she isn't." I then picked up our carton of ice cream and told him,"look she eats ice cream, she can't be a terrorist". To my disappointment, I found he was serious about his comment and he replied,"I still think she is a terrorist". I wanted to complain to the manager of the store but I didn't. The cashier was a senior citizen. I figured if he hadn't learnt to respect other races and faiths in his 50 or 60 years of life, he is not going to learn today. He did manage to hurt our feelings. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair6.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 156.63.42.10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story My story isn't very exciting. I had that day off work thanks to a last-minute rescheduling. Woke up briefly for fajr but went right back to bed then woke up for good around 8:00 a.m. Pacific time and went online while eating breakfast. Usually I like to check the news first but I happened to go to a discussion forum first only to see a thread called something like "omg!!!!!!!! two planes flew into the world trade center!!!!!!!!". I couldn't believe it was true, but I went to Yahoo news and confirmed it. I was just in shock, it didn't seem real that something like that could have happened, it was like a movie or something. I called my mom and ended up being the one to break the news to her; she had just woken up herself. I offered a salat and made du'a for some time then spent some time listening to the radio but then I decided I couldn't be alone all day so I went over to spend the day with my mom. It was so awful wondering if Muslims were behind it and listening to all these so-called experts on the radio and TV going on about Bin Laden and how supposedly only Muslims are suicide bombers. Later in the day I had a job interview that had been previously scheduled. I was pretty nervous but I wore hijab like usual. My mom took me over so I didn't have to go alone. Al-hamdulillah nothing bad happened, but I figure that must have been about the worst day of the year for a hijabi Muslimah to try and get a job! Needless to say, I didn't get that job. A funny thing was that about a week or so before that, a Muslim brother that took the same bus as me had given me a videotape of "Ar-Risala"/"The Message" (the story of the Prophet Muhammad) in Arabic (the brother is Syrian), but I hadn't gotten around to watching it. So I watched it at my parents' house after coming back from the job interview. When my dad came home from work he joked that this wasn't a safe time to be watching Arabic movies. But my parents were pretty cool about it and even asked some questions what the Prophet's (sAas) story was about. The next day I went back to work. My mom suggested that I shouldn't wear hijab and jilbab but I told her I would keep doing it unless I actually felt in danger. She accepted that; it wasn't that she actually wanted me to take them off, she was just worried for my safety. At the bus stop, brother Hamza and I talked about how we couldn't believe that anybody who called himself a Muslim could do something like that. We hoped it wasn't really Muslims. At work, my co-workers showed a lot of support for me. My supervisor said that if I ever couldn't come in to work because of danger to me, that was OK and we'd work it out later. A lady who works part-time called the office just to make sure I was OK. I was really touched by all their support. I also felt like maybe I had done a kind of da'wah in a way to show them that Muslims aren't alien or "weird": Muslims are ordinary nice people like their co-worker. On the bus ride home that afternoon, people were talking a lot about the whole thing. There was a conversation on the bus, one guy was saying hateful things about Islam but this other guy said not to believe everything in the media and to listen to Bin Laden's side before judging him. I was nervous that somebody would say something to me, but they didn't and I got off the bus right after that. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair3.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.75.205.157