“Gifts
in Kind do not
Always Come at the Right Time”
By
Brian Baker
Disasters often
bring out the best in people it is human
nature to want to help those who experience devastation, however those
acts of
kindness seem to always come right after the event and quickly diminish
as time
progresses. Personally as a member of the American Red Cross I have
“worked”
various disasters ranging from September 11 to a house fire that might
just
displace one family. The response effort I was most involved with
happened in West Warwick Rhode
Island
where 100 people died in a fast moving fire at a nightclub.
The band Great
White was playing at the Station nightclub on February 21, 2003
during
their performance on stage fire works went off. As the crowd cheered
fire engulfed
the sound proof foam behind the stage and spread quickly. At first
people were
slow to make it to the exits then panic broke out people became frantic
and
could not find the exits in time through the thick black smoke. In the end the fire
was the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people and injuring
more than 200. Ninety-six perished on the night of the fire, and 4 died
later
from their injuries at local hospitals.
This disasters hit
the small state of Rhode Island
very hard and it citizens did everything they
could to help those injured and aid those families and friends who lost
their
loved ones. My role in response to the fire was the Logistics
Coordinator with
the American Red Cross of Rhode Island a major part of my duties was
helping
manage the large amount of donations that were coming in to support the
relief
effort. The donations came in the form of money, manpower, and of
course
donations in-kind which included food and other tangible items. The
donations
were tremendous and much needed at first, however quickly became
unmanageable.
The Red Cross had
sent up a family support center at the Crown
Plaza hotel and over a
hundred
families came to grieve, find out information, and provide means for
body
identification. This is where the food came following in every local
restaurant
and store wanted to provide for these families. We had hundreds of
bottles of
water delivered and food ranging from four dozen pizzas to gourmet
catering. In
the first two days following the fire the food and other items were
nonstop. In
this type of situation one might think that this would be wonderful but
it
rapidly became a major problem. There was more food then we knew what
to do
with we found our selves trying to give it to hotel staff, guests and
anyone we
could. In fact much of the non perishable food was re-donated to local
shelters. These donations became a recording nightmare as well making
sure that
everything was documented. Something had to be done to stop the food
coming
because although it was very generous it was not being used. The
decision was
made on the third day following the fire that we needed to broadcast
the fact
that we did not want food “just showing up” and to please call ahead
before
donating to ensure that we can use the gift.
Almost instantly
after the statement was made all in-kind
donations almost ended people stopped bringing by anything. As with
most large
disaster the relief did not stop in a day or two especially in a
situation
where many of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition and
identification
took sometime. In the weeks to follow all of the food needed to be
purchased
with Red Cross funds and none of the donation could be used yet because
of
ridiculous policies. It is my belief that there were two major factors
that
contributed to the stop in the donation the first being the public
statement
and the second being as time progressed people no longer felt the need
to give.
This has been the case in any disaster that I have “worked” right after
the event
people are willing to give there time, money, and goods but as time
goes on
that stops and people no longer feel the need to give. Of course this
is during
the time when most of the resources are needed.