I was a young soldier in the US Amy when I first learned about the American Red Cross and it has been a lifeline when I needed them. I say them because the Red Cross has been almost always volunteers who sacrifice their time and energy to help someone in need.
In South Korea where I was stationed near the DMZ it was a welcome relief to see the Doughnut dollies from te American Red Cross come by to lift our morale. We would all gather around whether we were in the field or in our compound and have coffee and donuts and play games or just chat to hear about what’s going on in the world. They would traverse the countryside to meet with other units wherever they were. My impression was here they are looking after us and sacrificing their time in places of danger to bring a little bit of the US to us.
The Red Cross have come to my aid during my time in the Republic of Panama, Korea, Vietnam and Germany. They have come to provide information about my family when I wouldn’t or couldn’t write to them because of my circumstances. They would provide assistance to get me home when there’s a family emergency.
So, a year before I retired from the San Antonio School District as a School Social Worker, I attended an orientation about the Red Cross and I signed an application to volunteer. During that time before retirement, I attended classes about disaster services. When I did retire I quickly became an active volunteer. Actually, my wife declared that I wasn’t going to stay home and do nothing. So she pushed me out.
I took my volunteering seriously and my idea was to become a custodian or a janitor there. However, the director of disaster service asked me to work with shelters and assigned me to work with another volunteer who had set up the groundwork and I would just follow him to learn about getting agreements and conduct surveys. A month later, he quit and I was left alone. Fortunately, I had learned enough to take on the responsibility. Then came Hurricane Katrina.
It was my baptism of fire which taught us all that we weren’t as prepared as we thought. It brought a lot of changes in protocol and the use of manpower. The director asked me to join the Disaster Action Team (DAT) which I didn’t mind because the shelter management wasn’t taking too much time. I would take on a week and somebody else would take on the next week.
Being on the DAT opened my eyes as to the real work being done by volunteers. Being on alert for seven days and waiting for the phone call can be strenuous and the call was almost at night in the early morning. My wife had joined as a volunteer and she and I would venture out to answer the call. On those early days we had to do a lot of paperwork. Financial assistance and temporary lodging was provided by vouchers and we had to fill out all the necessary forms by hand. We didn’t mind because we saw the need of people in distress. The DAT became the place to be if you really wanted to help our fellowmen.
Later on we had a lot of changes in command and the way we were to conduct our services. After so many years working in DAT, I decided to stay with Shelter management. Protocol had changed and I had to relearn every aspect of procuring shelters. Technology had entered the picture and we were required to learn more about computers. A system called Volunteer Connection was started during my time in DAT and I used it to integrate the new volunteers as “ride alongs” and schedule themselves as to what date and what time they were available. We were still working one-week schedule with one DAT captain.
There were many classes in Disaster Services that we had to take to make us aware of the changes and the new technology that was being offered to make it easier to help our clients. Now, in DAT, we had credit cards instead of vouchers and laptops were carried to enter client information during a fire call. Almost everything was going digital and we had to be on the top with it.
In Facilities Management I had to digitize all my agreements and surveys that had been conducted in the past and bring them up to date with new forms that kept changing as we went along. The agreements along changed three or four times as well as the survey forms during my fifteen years. The job itself hasn’t changed. We still have to meet with the facilities owners and explain the agreement format and conduct a survey of the building.
Now, when there is Disaster Respond Operation (DRO) every aspect in Red Cross comes into play. Logistics is called to provide material and facilities, Mass Care is called to provide shelter and feeding of clients, Disaster Service Technology (DST) is called to provide communication within and outside the realm of the disaster. Other section is called to provide manpower, health services, and leadership.
The Red Cross has changed and it keeps on changing with time ready to serve. As long as we have volunteers who answer the call.
Author: Gene Cortez, Jr.
Life in West San Antonio
I have fond memories of the past while living in San Antonio. Those 20 years of experience living in the barrios and the Alazan Apache Courts served me well. For one, they made me what I am today.
I grew up during World War II at the end of the depression. This was a time where everyone had ration books to buy goods to help the economy and the war effort. They even had celebrities selling war bonds at the theaters to help the war effort.
I think that we helped by recycling glass bottles. I was about 6 years old when the war ended and I started going to school at Navarro Elementary school. I was then living with my mother on Laredo Street.
My mother initially had taken me to school hand in hand. She left me in front of the school. I was already street wise because of my uncles who taught me how to fend for myself so, I wasn’t afraid. So I stayed there until the fifth grade and graduated to Harris junior high school.
While in elementary school I started to work at various jobs. Selling newspapers downtown in which I hustled to earn a dollar each day, my pockets full of pennies which I gave to my mother. Later I graduated to throwing newspapers from my bicycle. It was ok during the week but the Sunday papers were too heavy and tended to weigh more than I did. My dad had me give it up because he was the one helping me hold the bike down while I went ahead and delivered the papers. Problem was also that the customers wouldn’t pay me.
Later on I had a job cleaning stoves at a used furniture store. I also painted the spring mattresses silver to make them look like new. The store was a block away from where I lived. I had to maneuver a drainage ditch with a twelve-inch walkway on one side and holding on to a fence. I fell down twice getting all wet each time. That was the same ditch I used to get to the railroad tracks that I followed down to the school.
During the 7thgrade, my mother arranged for us to move to the Alazan Apache courts and I had to change schools. I went to Sidney Lanier Junior High School. Living there was an experience. We had to adhere to rules which we weren’t used to. We had to maintain the apartment in pristine condition. In order to do that, we depended on resources from the business office. If we had to mow the lawn, we had to borrow their hand lawnmower. We couldn’t let it grow more than two inches during the summer. Also, they could come in anytime to inspect the apartment to make sure no one else was living there.
Transportation had always been a problem for us. We walked to school. We rode the bus to town and never called a taxi. There were mom and pop stores nearby for convenience. However, for groceries we relied on Centeno’s, a west side grocery store.
We had to move back to the house on Laredo Street for about a year but I didn’t tell the school about it so I winded up walking about a mile to school at Lanier. When it rained hard, I couldn’t get across the Alazan creek due to flooding. Later we were able to get another apartment with the Alazan Courts on Vera Cruz street. My family stayed there way after my graduation. Meanwhile I became more involved with school activities but at the same time I was working at Guerra’s drug store. Again my pay check went straight to my mother.
When I was seventeen, I was still at the end of my sophomore year. Everybody was graduating at seventeen or eighteen. It was probably because I had failed a grade or two at the elementary level. However, during my senior year I had decided to just enjoy school and all the senior activities and leave work alone. I was almost twenty when I graduated.
As a pre-adolescent, my life had always been about work. In a way I managed to get instilled in me not only a work ethic but also having fun and enjoying life. As a teenager, I still had to work but I enjoyed the dances and the gathering at various social centers with my friends. The Guadalupe Center, House of Neighborly, Boys Club and the Good Samaritan Center were the places to go to. Then there were school dances.
Somebody once said the West side was the center of our universe and it is rightly so because everything we valued was there. Family, friends, church and school were at the crux of our lives.
Gene's Corner 