Disaster Assigment

As soon as I heard of a potential hurricane to hit the east coast, I was thinking about if my life/current job would allow me to accept a disaster volunteer assignment. When I discovered that committing three weeks, would be pretty difficult, I gave up the thought of being able to directly help those effected by Sandy. I decided that this would not be the last natural disaster in our country (unfortunately) and I would have another opportunity to help at a later date. Since I had lost hope (I mean that in the least-dramatic way) on helping this time, I was excited when I received an email from the Director of Emergency Services at my local Red Cross asking for interest in an at-home assignment. I didn't even know they had volunteers working from home so this was exciting news! I replied to the email instantly saying that I was interested in the role. I quickly got a call about the training and when I would officially start being on call.

My role is as a "staff card loader", involves me monitoring an email inbox that receives emails from chapters or the disaster operation itself about new volunteers being deployed. I will check that email box and then load the proper amount of money on the volunteer's "staff card" (which is kind of like a debit card) based on the emails I receive. Basically, chapters send an email when they are getting ready to send a new volunteer from their area to New York or New Jersey. We load the staff cards to allow volunteers to pay for their travel etc while assisting in a DR (Disaster Response - the Red Cross loves acronyms!). (There are multiple steps in the process, but I think you get the idea)

During my training last week, I realized that if I didn't volunteer to load cards other volunteers would not be able to physically get to where they need to be to help and when I do get deployed as a disaster volunteer (at a later date) I'll be overjoyed that someone was volunteering from home and to put funds on my staff card. My first shift is not until Friday (and I'm super excited even though I'll just be sitting at my computer) so I'll update you then.