Red Cross Volunteer does Double Duty
Published: October 6, 2005
American Red Cross volunteers working on the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief effort expected to face difficult conditions and challenging assignments; they don’t expect a new do.
When Red Cross volunteer Dan Guevare called out to his fellow volunteers at the Woodlawn Baptist Church staff shelter in Baton Rouge “Does anyone need a haircut?” he took everyone by surprise.
Guevare is assigned to Red Cross Client Services and works out of Headquarters in Baton Rouge, La., serving locations in the area where he processes and distributes Client Assistance Cards to Hurricane Katrina victims. There was no response to Guevare’s call from the group in the staff shelter.
“Really, I’ll give anyone that needs a haircut a trim, right here, right now!” he said, adding: “I even trim beards. What do you say?”
“I’m game,” I said. “I wasn’t able to get a haircut before I left home in Maine, and I’m starting to look a little shaggy.”
Guevare led me to a metal folding chair that he had set on the walkway outside the shelter, sat me down and cloaked me in a plastic barber’s sheet. Hurricane Rita was blowing through the Baton Rouge area making the sheet flap and billow.
“You’ll need to hold that down, I’m afraid,” said Guevare. “If we’re lucky I’ll be able to finish before the rains come again.”
He asked how I wanted my hair cut, and then pulled out a complete set of clippers, scissors and barber tools and started clipping away. Guevare is a new Red Cross volunteer from the Pomona Chapter in Los Angeles, Calif. He is a barber in his civilian life and wanted to help not only the victims of Hurricane Katrina but also his fellow Red Cross volunteers in any way he could.
He has been in Louisiana for a week and is enthusiastic about his Red Cross assignment, helping hurricane survivors get financial assistance.
“I really like working with the clients, and I think we are doing great things for them,” he said. “I’ve been going out with our four-person team to sites in the Baton Rouge area, meeting with families and helping them with their disaster assistance.”
To provide emergency financial assistance to Hurricane Katrina victims the Red Cross began offering emergency financial assistance in Louisiana for disaster-caused needs on September 11, 2005, through a hotline.
Without pausing in his clipping, he told me how his team had met with Katrina victims at financial assistance sites set up in partnership with local groups and community organizations, such as the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. These sites are intended to augment the hotline and to broaden the outreach of financial assistance.
“Yesterday we distributed cards worth $2 million to clients in the space of five hours,” he said with a grin. “I really feel we are helping these people get back on their feet, and it makes my work with Client Services very worthwhile.”
Guevare is a well-rounded Red Cross volunteer and is as enthusiastic about both his Client Services work and providing a needed service for his fellow volunteers. He does a good job in both areas, and I was very pleased with my trim. All my clipped hair blew conveniently away in the Hurricane Rita winds swirling around us. As I stood up Guevare shouted out “Does anyone else need a haircut?”
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