Students to the Rescue

H-R Friends of the American Red Cross help victims cope with disaster

By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

By day, Maureen Devlin '96 is a 21-year-old Quincy House resident concentrating in anthropology.

By night she is a superhero.

What else would you call someone who appears as if by magic at the moment when people are experiencing the most crushing disasters, eases them through their initial shock and grief, and makes it possible for them to go on with their lives?

Devlin and a growing number of Harvard undergraduates have acquired their superhero status by becoming Red Cross volunteers. As members of the student organization Harvard-Radcliffe Friends of the American Red Cross, they speed to local fires in a specially equipped van, practice first aid and CPR, distribute food, beverages, and clothing to the suddenly homeless, and make sure these disaster victims have a place to stay until they can get back on their feet.

"This is something I do that's very real," Devlin said. "I'm there when people are going through one of the worst experiences they can have. I can't fix it, but if I can help them through the experience, make it easier for them, then I feel that I've accomplished something."

H-R Friends of the Red Cross is a relatively new group, but it has been growing rapidly as more students discover the satisfaction of helping people at their moment of greatest need.

The group began when Thomas McAlear '95 and a few fellow students began volunteering in the spring of 1994. About 50 students now serve on a regular basis, with several hundred interested members in total.

More than 15 students have qualified as instructors in first aid and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and now conduct classes at Quincy House. These first aid and CPR classes, widely advertised throughout the campus, have attracted many students to the Red Cross, often drawing them into a deeper involvement with the organization.

"I think that everyone should learn first aid and CPR. You never know when you're going to need it," said Ashraf Hegazy '96, president of H-R Friends of the American Red Cross.

Hegazy, a psychology concentrator, first became aware of the importance of the Red Cross when a large earthquake hit his native Egypt in 1993. Hegazy, then a freshman, started an organization to collect funds on campus to help the quake victims and in so doing became acquainted with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent.

"That experience made me feel that I wanted to become more involved," Hegazy said. "People all over the world have felt the impact of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent on their lives, and I felt that if I could do something to help here, I'd be helping people everywhere."

Founded in Switzerland in 1863, the Red Cross began as an organization dedicated to treating wounded soldiers in time of war. The movement soon spread through most of the world's nations. The Red Crescent insignia was adopted to provide a familiar symbol in Muslim countries.

The American Red Cross was organized in 1881 by Clara Barton and was granted its first federal charter in 1900. The charter was revised in 1905, bringing the organization into closer partnership with the federal government. Funded entirely by voluntary contributions and staffed chiefly by carefully trained volunteers, the Red Cross is mandated by Congress to enter any emergency situation. It is nonpolitical, nondenominational, and treats all disaster victims without prejudice.

With its vast experience in handling disasters of every kind, the Red Cross has developed a level of preparedness unmatched by any other organization. Alerted to residential fires by special arrangement with local fire departments, the Red Cross provides a unique service.

"It's very rewarding to feel that you're doing something that if you didn't do it, wouldn't be done," Hegazy said.

As an example of the group's special brand of help, Hegazy recalls the time the Harvard volunteers responded to a fire on Christmas eve which left many families homeless, a large proportion of them recent Vietnamese immigrants.

"I remember how grateful they were that someone would give up Christmas eve to do this, especially when they realized that one of the Harvard students spoke Vietnamese," Hegazy said.

The situations that volunteers encounter run the gamut from tragic to farcical. Devlin remembers the night she and other team members spent an hour rounding up six cats belonging to a woman whose home had been destroyed by fire.

The work can also be demanding, especially for students who are juggling exams, papers, and classwork.

"Sometimes you'll be driving home at 3 a.m., thinking you're all finished, and you'll get a call on your beeper telling you that some of the people who lived in the building where the fire was have just returned home, and now they have no place to live, so you have to turn around and go back again," Devlin said.

Some students value the experience of working for the Red Cross because of what it teaches them about other people.

"Every single run you make you learn something new," said James Lin '96, a biology concentrator who has been a Red Cross volunteer since his junior year. "Nothing is routine. Everything has its own lesson to be learned. I find that when I do what I can to help others along, I'm helped along in return."

According to Liberty Black, head of the disaster relief program at the Red Cross's Massachusetts Bay chapter, Harvard students now play a major role in providing relief services in the Boston area.

"The Harvard group has become a significant part of our effort. We're hoping that volunteer groups will start in other schools in the area," he said.

Black's wish is being granted. Recently, students at Boston University have begun organizing a Red Cross volunteer group with help from the Harvard students. The Harvard group has designated M.I.T. and Tufts as their next targets, aiming to make volunteer disaster relief an intercollegiate effort.

Currently, Harvard students occupy the "ready room" at the Boston chapter's Columbus Avenue headquarters on Monday and Tuesday nights, spending the evening reading and studying until a call comes in. Wearing blue shirts and white hardhats inscribed with the Red Cross insignia, they hop aboard one of the organization's vans and hurry to the scene of the disaster.

Once there, they perform a variety of functions, guided by their standardized Red Cross training. These include registering fire victims, distributing clothing when needed, serving food and drink to victims and firefighters, going into the burned dwelling when conditions permit to do damage assessment, and finding temporary shelter for those burned out of their homes.

When necessary, volunteers can call for backup, such as specialists in disaster mental health services.

"There's always someone on call to deal with things that you can't deal with," Devlin said.

Volunteers also carry beepers, which allow them to respond to calls on off-days, when their schedules permit. Just recently, Harvard donated a parking space in the Business School lot, allowing one of the group's vans to remain on campus on a regular basis.

But despite the demands of the job, the student volunteers agree that its rewards provide more than adequate compensation.

"It's a complete escape from my Harvard identity," Devlin said. "Some days you might be whining because you got a bad grade on a test, then you go out on a call and see someone who has nothing. It puts things in perspective."

To learn more about Red Cross courses in first aid and CPR, call Greg Prakalapakorn at 493-7613. To learn about getting involved with disaster services, call Ashraf Hegazy at 493-7691.