Wednesday, June 8, 2011

NOTES FROM JOPLIN: A DEPLOYED VOLUNTEER WRITES HOME

A message from Quinn, a Red Cross logistics services volunteer on deployment in Joplin, MO for the last 10 days

I have 4 and a wake up (4 full days then one more night),  then I fly home to Austin.  Once I get there, the two weeks I have spent on assignment with the Red Cross will slowly begin to filter through the layers of my psyche, and I will experience the sights, sounds and feelings all over again.  The horizonless devestation.  The hundreds of family pets that live in kennels anxiously waiting for a beloved owner to claim them.  The obituaries.  "Beloved sister, husband, wife, son ... died of injuries sustained in the tornado."  I am hopeful that those memories will fade.  I would prefer that when I think of Joplin, I remember the local Red Cross volunteer, who after her home was utterly destroyed, showed up at headquarters, starting working and is still here.  I want to remember the hundreds of law enforcement officers and firefighters who came from all over four states to help keep vulnerable people safe.  I know that my memory of the many, hundreds even, of people I saw every day who in spite of whatever level of damage they suffered, were kind, generous and eager to help, will never fade. 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment