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Red Cross Nurse Embarks on First Disaster Relief Mission
01/21/10 - 04:41 PM

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Not everyone can go to Haiti.  The American Red Cross has sent hundreds of volunteers there, but none have come from the local Bay County chapter.  Bob Pearce, Executive Director of the Panhandle Chapter, said there isn’t anyone here with the sufficient level of training. 

“We don’t have anybody here who is qualified in international relief operations,” Pearce said.  “It takes several years to go through that process.”

But that doesn’t mean the local chapter isn’t pitching in.  Two volunteers went to Orlando today, to help process the thousands of people being evacuated from Haiti into various cities in Florida. 

A nurse for 35 years, Martha Valcourt is one of the volunteers going to Orlando.  She said she isn’t worried about what she’ll face on her first disaster mission.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that big a deal,” Valcourt said. “Because they’ve already … had immediate medical care that they needed and we’re just kind of the follow-up.”

Valcourt and Leah Reagan will start their work in Orlando, with the possibility that they could be transferred to other cities in Florida, according to where they’re needed.  They’ll both be on eight-hour shifts, for seven days.  Once the seven days are up, they’ll have the option to come home, or stay longer.

The Red Cross has tagged the Haitian relief mission as Disaster Relief Operation 878-10.  And now two more Floridians are involved.
“It’s all part of Haitian relief,” Pearce said of the Orlando mission.  “And it’s a very important part of Haitian relief.”