Providing food, shelter and hope

Mention the Red Cross and most people conjure images of volunteers assisting people in natural disasters. Perhaps less known is the work they do at the local level, mainly responding to families who have been displaced by house fires.

“A lot of people see us in the big disasters, like the earthquake in Haiti, and right now with the flooding that's going on in Tennessee and the tornadoes in Mississippi last week,” said Sam Kille, director of public relations for Red Cross in Nassau County. “They don't realize that we respond to many fires right here.”

Last Sunday morning, volunteers from the Mineola-based chapter arrived in Long Beach after a family escaped from a fire at a West Walnut Street home. “The fire was contained to the attack and was extinguished in 30 minutes, and the family got out of the house unharmed,” said Scott Kemins, commissioner of the Long Beach Fire Department.

Red Cross volunteers provided the family — two parents and an adult child who rents part of the home — with food, clothing and shelter at a nearby motel.

The Nassau chapter has rotating squads of volunteers standing by to respond immediately to any call in an emergency response vehicle. “We'll bring the families into our vehicles to shelter them from everything that's going on,” Kille said, noting that volunteers offer them snacks, water, coffee and the like.

The Red Cross also provides money for such items as food, clothing and winter jackets as well as diapers and formula for families with toddlers.

Mitchell Carr, a Long Beach resident and a volunteer with the Nassau Disaster Action Team, did case work at the house on West Walnut, bringing cleanup kits and disinfectants to use on anything salvaged from the fire. “I like helping the people and my neighbors in Nassau County,” Carr said. “You get a good feeling helping your fellow men and women.”

Carr got involved with the Red Cross in 1989, after a fire at an apartment building on Shore Road where he was a maintenance worker. He helped evacuate all 12 floors, and in the days that followed he visited a shelter that was set up at City Hall. “That really got me interested,” said Carr, who was also in Center Moriches after Flight 800 crashed in 1996 and at ground zero after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

The Nassau County Fire Communication Center typically contacts the Red Cross at the request of fire departments on the scene, but it is not notified about every fire. The Red Cross responded to more than 100 incidents — mainly fires — in Nassau County last year, and provided assistance to 468 residents.

“Unfortunately, sometimes we're not notified until a neighbor or the family themselves call us a day or so later,” Kille said.

In January, after Cheryl Ennella and her family lost everything in a fire that ripped through their Tennessee Avenue home in the West End, the Red Cross was there that day to assist them. While neighbors and friends immediately offered help, giving the family clothing, the Red Cross gave them debit cards to buy shoes. Ennella ended up spending three nights at a local hotel.

Because the Red Cross's mission is to offer “initial emergency assistance,” it provides shelter usually only for a night or two, depending on whether a family's insurance company will pay for a hotel, after which the Red Cross has referral services for agencies that can provide longer-term assistance. The level of assistance is determined by a family's size, their individual needs and the extent of damage.

Among the volunteers are mental health professionals who offer support to displaced families, whose emotions run the gamut from fear to grief. “A lot of times you're losing not just the place where you live, but you're losing memories, photos and things like that, as well as animals and, tragically, lose of life,” Kille said.

The overall budget for the Nassau County Red Cross is $2.3 million per year, 50 percent of which is funded by fees collected at health and safety course it provides. The other half comes from donations, mainly from local businesses, fundraisers and individual Long Islanders.

“The money raised by the local chapter is used in the local community,” Kille said. “... It's food, shelter and hope that we provide.”

To learn how you can volunteer for the Red Cross, visit www.nassauredcross.org or call (516) 747-3500.

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.