How I Learned to Prepare With the Red Cross      

By Red Cross Volunteer J.C. Weiss

I live and work in downtown Manhattan and following the events of September 11, 2001, I knew I wanted to do something to help my community.  I volunteered at the Red Cross post on Canal Street, hoping to do something useful – drive, carry supplies, do clerical work, anything.

It turned out the most useful skill I had to offer was language. I’m a native Spanish speaker and some of the clients the Red Cross was servicing at that location spoke only Spanish. I found the experience fulfilling, but also personally unsettling. I realized that in my reaction to a community emergency I had little to offer but good intentions. Like many others, I was completely unprepared.

I found these concerns were shared by many in my family and by friends and acquaintances. They felt powerless, not only because they felt they had no control over the unexpected – most of them accept that as part of life – but also because they had no idea what they should or could do before or during an emergency. Like me, they wanted to do something. Like me, they didn’t know what.

I learned about the Red Cross’s Preparing for the Unexpected course, which answers such questions as: How do you communicate with loved ones? What basic emergency supplies should you always have nearby? What are the evacuation plans for your children’s schools? For your workplace? 

The course was excellent.  It was well executed and fulfilled an important need. My family attended and we worked out an emergency communication plan, put together the essential items for an emergency kit and decided on a meeting place to use in the event of an emergency. We also made plans to take Red Cross courses in First Aid and CPR.

The course helps people help themselves. Now, I help teach the course, which I find is a useful way to perform community service.  My wife, who comes from a strong tradition of community and public service, and I both feel that is a vital responsibility.  My mother may also become a course presenter.  

The unexpected happens. That’s why we get health, accident and life insurance before we need it, not after. Occasionally, events outside of our control disturb our daily life and force us to adapt. Be they hurricanes, blackouts or fires, like it or not we have to react and adapt. What the Red Cross course offers is knowledge and ways to deal with the unexpected.

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