A First Deployment, A New Experience for All

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate the headlines, other emergencies don’t stop, and the American Red Cross remains focused on delivering our lifesaving mission each day. This was demonstrated in early June, when Tropical Storm Cristobal threatened the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Red Cross responded quickly with disaster volunteers from around the country, including three responders from Western New York.

Briana Freeman installing a smoke alarm
as part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign

Briana Freeman was one of these volunteer responders. Briana—or Brie as she is known to her colleagues—is a proud Rochester native and a Regional Preparedness Specialist at the West Henrietta office, close to home. A graduate of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, Brie has been with the Red Cross for 18 months, including a year serving the organization through AmeriCorps. Cristobal was her first national deployment, and it was a big step. “Being the first one, I probably overpacked a little bit,” she joked.

Brie’s deployment was a change from her regular Red Cross work, which involves working with and teaching alongside area partners to build community resiliency against disasters. Her primary focus is on programs involving citizen preparedness, home fire safety, and the Pillowcase Project for younger children. Brie loves interacting with so many different people of different ages and backgrounds in the community, and hearing their experiences. “I think that’s definitely the most fun part,” she said.

A major deployment to a tropical storm 1500 miles from home is a very different experience, however. Still, Brie jumped at the chance to help and arrived in Houston, Texas on June 5, along with volunteers from around the country. Thanks to COVID-19, however, this deployment was a new kind of experience for volunteers new and old.

When Brie first arrived for work at the local Red Cross headquarters, she had her temperature taken and was required to wear a mask at all times. Social distancing was required, so most of the interactions with her fellow volunteers had to be virtual rather than physical. “That definitely was different to what normally occurs,” she said. The restrictions made the volunteers’ task more challenging, especially in terms of communicating effectively with each other, but they quickly found ways to make it work.

Brie also saw first-hand how rapidly the Red Cross can respond to the changing situation on the ground. Two days into her deployment, when it seemed the storm might make landfall further east, many of the volunteers quickly relocated to Beaumont, Texas, near the Louisiana border. Working in operations, Brie helped facilitate this sudden redeployment. “It was literally done with a couple of hours’ notice,” she noted.

Fortunately, Cristobal’s impact in Texas was less severe than predicted, and the Red Cross did not need to open any shelters. Rather than just packing up and going home right away, the volunteers pivoted to turning the experience into a trial run for how to organize a major disaster deployment in the midst of COVID. “Even though we didn’t actually have to open up any shelters, we acted like we did, and used this as a learning experience because this is so different now from what we normally do,” Brie said.

The deployment also gave Brie an opportunity to work with some veteran volunteers, and she had nothing but good things to say about them. “Everyone was very welcoming,” she insisted, “and they want to do everything they can to teach you as much as possible, and that was such a high point for me.” Although Brie’s shift to operations required a steep learning curve, her two more experienced colleagues quickly took her under their wing. “Although I was only there five days, I felt like I learned easily two weeks to a month’s worth of stuff,” she said.

Having made it through her first deployment, Brie would happily do it all again. “It was a wonderful learning experience that has helped me grow into a better staff member, a better volunteer, and a better person,” she said.

The experience has also made Brie more confident than ever of the organization’s ability to keep doing its job effectively, even in the midst of a pandemic. “The Red Cross, no matter what, is sticking to our mission of helping people in all different situations,” she said, “and while we might be doing our mission a little differently just now, we’re still one hundred percent behind the mission.”

If you’d like to help the Red Cross deliver its lifesaving mission nationwide during this public health emergency, please donate at www.redcross.org. Right now, we have high priority need for volunteers that are willing to work in a shelter if the need arises during this hurricane/wildfire season. If you’d like to consider becoming a volunteer, you can start your journey by filling out an online application at www.redcross.org/volunteer.

Story by: Dougie Bicket, 

American Red Cross Communications Volunteer