Local women pitch in for children

COLUMBUS - On Friday, May 4, an EF 5 Tornado destroyed 95 percent of the small town of Greensburg Kan., population 1,574. One week later, three Columbus women trained to care for child-disaster victims were on the ground creating an oasis from the destruction and chaos left behind by the storm.

Martha Davidson, Anne Kallesen and Bonnie Riley of Columbus set up their child care service inside the Red Cross response center at Barclay Bible College in Haviland, Kan., which is 11 miles from Greensburg.

They spent their first night on Red Cross cots. After that, they were put up in a motel about an hour away in Grand Bend, Kan. During their six-day stay, they ate from the food trucks and drank bottled water alongside the survivors and other disaster workers.

“It's totally different every time the call comes,” said Kallesen. “The adrenaline kicks in and you just go. You make your preparations and you get to the site. You have to be prepared for anything because you never know what you're going to find when you get there.”

Davidson explained how the work unfolds.

“Our mission was to focus on the children,” Davidson said. “We start by setting up an area for them that's out of the way but where they can still see their parents filing out the forms that will bring the assistance they need.”

They set up a “Kit of Comfort” that includes art materials, modeling clay, toy cars and trucks, dolls, books and other toys and items that the children will find familiar.

“We care for children infant to about 12 years old,” said Riley.

When a parent comes to sign-in their child, a photo is taken of both of them to ensure they are safely returned to the right person.

“Taking that picture at the very beginning seems to put the parents and the kids more at ease,” said Riley.

The relative normalcy of familiar toys and games has a calming effect on the children. They are encouraged to share their experiences, to draw and play and relax while their parents complete the necessary paperwork.

“On this call to this rural area, the number of children we had to deal with was less than expected,” said Kallesen. “People there have strong ties to extended family and friends in the area. Because of this, we got the chance to talk with many more of the adults than in other situations I've been in.”

The three women were trained by Children's Disaster Services, formerly Disaster Child Care. The program is sponsored by the Emergency Response/Service Ministries of the Church of the Brethren. Children's Disaster Services trains, certifies, and mobilizes volunteers to disaster sites in the United States providing crisis intervention to young children of families suffering from natural or man-made disasters. Once trained, the volunteer caregivers wait for the call that can come at anytime following a disaster.

Kallesen has plenty of experience. Greensburg was her seventh disaster response. She spent two weeks just 30 blocks from Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack in New York City.

The women emphasized the scope of their work is to give the children their undivided attention. If needed they will encourage the parents to follow up with help from a Red Cross mental health counselor.

Near the end of their stay the three attended a prayer service under a large tent erected in the Greensburg city park.

“It was Mother's Day and as the townspeople gathered under the big tent, and they were hugging one another and holding onto one another,” Davidson said. “There were lots of tears and lots of joy and relief shown as friends found each other again, some for the first time since the storm.”

Kallesen said one woman she met captured the spirit of the families devastated by the tornado.

“She told me she had always heard that ‘God doesn't give us more than we can handle,'” said Kallesen. “She told me, ‘If that's the case, God must have a pretty high opinion of us, so we just have to keep going.'”

For Martha Davidson the experience was her first since finishing her training in 2005. She said some of those who appeared most shaken by the disaster were those who were not in Greensburg during the tornado, but who returned from out of town, discovered the devastation and then had to begin the process of finding their loved ones and friends.

“Another thing I noticed is that the younger kids we care for don't really have a grasp on how much everything has changed for them,” said Davidson. “The children don't have a sense of the future so they still expect things to happen that were planned before the tornado came. One little girl was still talking about a field trip she was looking forward to at school, but her school was gone, and she wasn't going to get to go on that field trip anytime soon.”

Bonnie Riley has been connected to the program for five years. This was her third call to a disaster site.

“The thing that strikes me the most is seeing all the volunteers from all the different agencies being there for the people. “Seeing all those people quietly working together in such an ecumenical way is such a hopeful thing. There is no debate about religion in that situation. It's just people coming together to help one another,” Riley said.

One of the most memorable things for the most experienced of the three was hearing the stories of the adult survivors of the tornado.

“They really want to tell the story, they need to tell their stories,” Kallesen said, “and they tell it in great detail, all about how they were sleeping one minute and the next they were covered in bricks and trying to pull themselves out of the mess all around them.”

Davidson said, “The generosity of the people there was abundant,” she said. “It's difficult to describe it, seeing tragedy on the one hand and the outpouring of love and caring on the other was just beautiful.”

Individuals interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer responder or Children's Disaster Services can contact Kallesen at 564-8463.