Doug North of the Central and Northern New York Chapter has been a Disaster Services volunteer for nearly a dozen years. He holds several chapter and regional positions including Disaster Action Team Supervisor, Regional Logistics Lead and Warehousing Manager.

He has also deployed to other areas of the country to assist in Disaster Relief Operations in communities impacted by large-scale disasters. He recently traveled to Louisiana to help manage warehousing and logistics for a relief operation in response to recent winter storms.

“I started volunteering with the Red Cross in October of 2014.  I was recruited by Rosie Taravella who, at the time, was the Executive Director for the former Western and Central New York Region. Now, she’s Vice President of the Northeast Division.  Anyone that knows Rosie knows that she is not an easy person to say no to.  I was still employed at the time, so my concentration was on the Disaster Action Team (DAT) as I could not deploy for two-week responses. 

“Our local DAT teams are busy. We respond to over 100 events a year, most of them being home fires. On the DAT team, we are dealing with people that have just lost everything. One resident we helped commented that the Red Cross brought hope and started them on their recovery.

“One of the most memorable responses was a 19-unit apartment in Syracuse in late fall.  We arrived to find the residents on the sidewalk waiting for the fire department to let them back in.  We handed out blankets to everyone along with water and snacks. 

“We noticed a young mother with a 5- or 6-year-old son sitting on the lawn away from the rest of the group.  It was 2 a.m.  and the young boy was obviously cold and scared. We were able to take the child and his mother to our Emergency Response Vehicle where it was warm and dry.  We carry some coloring books, crayons, etc. in our response vehicle so we were able to set the child up in a warm place and gave him something to do to take his mind off the disaster. The mother was grateful for the special care and hugged all the Red Cross responders. Everyone except one resident was able to return after the fire department cleared the smoke and made sure the air quality was acceptable.”   

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