When Disaster Strikes
It’s Red Cross Month, and Ed Teixeira of Civil Defense, HPD Chief Boisse Correa and HFD Chief Attilio Leonardi join Coralie Matayoshi, Red Cross executive director, in saluting the organization that is always there when flood, fire, hurricane or other disaster strikes Hawaii.
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Being young at heart also makes for a great volunteer. Consider the involvement of 87-years-young Goldie Brangman-Dumpson, who volunteered as a nurse in 1940. She was with the Greater New York chapter until her retirement in Hawaii in 1987. She has been chairman of the volunteers, served on the Hawaii Chapter board, done nurse aide and other training, and provided administrative support. In 1992, she served as disaster shelter manager at Kauai Community College during Hurricane Iniki. She won the National American Red Cross Ann Mangnussen Award that year, given to outstanding volunteers.
This dedicated worker still devotes three times a week to Red Cross as a trainer. The Moiliili resident says the organization is “always on the job and always in the red,” suggesting that continual funding is needed to keep quality programs going. She remembers collecting funds in her early days of nursing, when she’d go around with a tin can. “I’m still shaking the can,” she laughs.
• Red Cross volunteers are at the right place at the right time.
Very true. Sen. Daniel Inouye says: “The Red Cross has a special niche in America’s way of life. If there is a hurricane, the Red Cross will be there. If there is a flood, the Red Cross will be there. If there is a fire, the Red Cross will be there.
“We owe the Red Cross a great national debt of gratitude,” he adds. “They truly do God’s work. As one grateful American who never forgot the kindness and comfort received in my time of need, I thank the Red Cross. I honor you and salute you.”
National Red Cross month is a good time to pay tribute to the 3,000 volunteers and thousands of donors who do the noble work of the Hawaii chapter. During the March 4-5 Hats Off event and March 9 Hats Off restaurant promotion, think about the ways this organization has affected lives in Hawaii and elsewhere.
If you are devastated due to a crisis, you don’t have to call. Red Cross just shows up and never asks for thanks or payment in return.
That’s the price of disaster diplomacy.
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