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Design artist volunteers, helps in hurricane aftermath |
| By
Vicki L. Kroll |
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Nov 22, 2005 |
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Joni Bishop still doesn’t like to talk about it. She hasn’t even told her husband much about what it was like helping Hurricane Katrina victims in Ocean Springs, Miss.
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| An American Red Cross volunteer gave cookies to a girl in Biloxi, Miss., last month. |
“It’s hard to explain how you feel after you come back from something like that,” Bishop said. “I feel guilty for leaving there, for not doing more to help, for coming back to a nice house, to a refrigerator full of food, to a wonderful job.”
The computer graphics design artist in the Marketing and Communications Office spent two weeks as a volunteer with the American Red Cross last month in Ocean Springs, a subdivision of Biloxi.
“We were about a mile from the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and about 50 miles from where the eye of the storm hit,” she said. “The storm came and went and we tend to forget about it, but the problems in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are still down there.”
Bishop thought she was prepared for her tour of duty — until she arrived at Christus Victor Lutheran Church, the shelter where she lived and worked.
“I didn’t expect to see what I saw — 165 evacuees. The Red Cross calls them clients; I call them residents. There were little babies, senior citizens in their late 80s, all with no homes to go to, all with horror stories to tell.”
She did a lot of listening.
“I got attached to some of the residents even though you shouldn’t; it was hard not to,” Bishop said. “I still worry about them, but I know they’ll be OK.”
She helped feed the residents, cleaned the shelter, did laundry, made care packages for children, and helped unload trucks that brought supplies to the makeshift distribution center at the church.
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| Joni Bishop, center, wearing Toledo T-shirt, posed for a photo with other American Red Cross volunteers last month at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs, Miss. |
Bishop also rode along with other volunteers and a nurse on Red Cross trucks that took water, food, clothing, cleaning supplies, pet food and other items out to people who couldn’t make it to the shelter.
“We went to Waveland where the eye of the storm came in. There’s nothing left there. The wind blew away the trees, the grass. People were living under the stars on their property trying to figure out what to do,” she said. “Everywhere we went people were so kind and thankful. If Red Cross volunteers gave someone a pair of used blue jeans, it was as though we gave them a three-carat diamond All some had were the clothes they wore the day of the storm.”
She said a lot of people stayed at their homes to be with their pets.
“The Red Cross has a rule — no pets allowed inside the shelter. But there was a playground with a fence out back,” Bishop said. “We tried to accommodate the entire family as we know pets are part of the family.”
One tiny Chihuahua has a home with a volunteer in California because Bishop took the time to coax her out of hiding and feed her.
“I met so many great people — other volunteers and residents, who are just like us, but financially they have nothing left. In other circumstances, this could be me,” she said. “It’s hard to fathom the haves and have-nots.”
Bishop said she decided to share her experience to raise awareness for the need for volunteers.
“The world doesn’t have enough volunteers. Showing kindness to other people — this is something everyone can do. The Red Cross has free classes to prepare you as much as possible.”
Bishop has been the only UT employee to serve as a certified American Red Cross volunteer to assist with hurricane relief, according to Human Resources. Certified Red Cross workers are eligible for up to one month of volunteering with salary paid under the Ohio Revised Code.
For more information, call the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross at 419.329.2900.
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