Lawrence
Today magazine, Fall 2006
Identifying the waiters
It was a real surprise to see the picture of the Brokaw Hall waiters (Summer
2006), a photo taken 65 years ago in 1941.
Seeing my face over the left shoulder of head waiter Chester Cook, ’43,
was a pleasant surprise. R. Lawrence Storms, ’47, now deceased, carried
the lead food tray, followed by Robert Whitaker, ’51
Richard H. Bick, ’45
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
[Chet Cook and Ruth Birkhaeuser Burlingame, M-D’42, also aided in making identifications.- Ed.]
Article did a disservice
I believe your recent article “Going Where the Needs Are” (Summer
2006), focusing on a group of Lawrence students providing hurricane relief,
did an enormous disservice to the thousands of volunteers who helped
in the hurricane relief.
Every day in hundreds of American communities, many hundreds of volunteers
provide relief and comfort, without pay, through the American Red Cross.
These volunteers get up at 3:00 a.m. and respond to the needs of a
family burned
out of their home. They find them a motel room or open a shelter for
their needs. If food or clothing is needed, arrangements are made.
Red Cross
volunteers are trained in the areas of emergency preparedness, CPR,
first aid, and community services. Without any means test; citizenship requirement;
or racial, ethnic or economic bias, emergency assistance is provided.
No questions are asked.
While the Lawrence students were doing their Spring Break thing, I
was manning a Red Cross call center in Phoenix, Arizona. We were handling
emergencies from Florida to Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas because the
national call
center
had
been overwhelmed. The distributed call centers in 14 U.S. communities
worked well. All together, the call centers fielded over a million
inquiries,
and I’m confident that there were many Lawrence volunteers as well as Lawrence “clients.”
Look to your local communities, as well as the national picture. As
a disaster action team leader, I’m willing to respond to our
local needs, but these needs can only be fulfilled with the support
and cooperation
and volunteerism
of the community. When the local services are overwhelmed, as happened
last summer, all the chapters of the American Red Cross are tasked
to help. And
they did. No one is asking for a pat-on-the- back, but the job was
done to the best of our ability.
Jim Warner, ’66
Scottsdale, Arizona