Hurricane Harvey Relief Effort Update from Local Volunteer

Posted on September 7, 2017
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI

The last time Sherry Fagner, spoke with WKVI, she was two days away from joining the Red Cross in Houston to assist with mass care efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Fagner is a Lead Disaster Action Team member for Pulaski and Starke Counties as well as a long-time Red Cross Volunteer. Sherry has been on the ground for a little under a week now and has been quite busy as the supervisor of a staff shelter there.

Her responsibilities involve assisting volunteers by providing food, water and adequate facilities to ensure they’re at their best to be out in the field. Fagner said that even though her experience with volunteer work has prepared her for what she is doing now, there are some differences between this relief effort and ones from her past.

She said that when she volunteered during the South Bend floods last year she did more client casework which had her working one-on-one with clients. “They are just beginning that phase of stuff here and that probably would not be something I would be doing in Texas.” she said, “We are doing more of the shelter aspect, that’s what I came down here for is shelter work.”

Sherry said she will be helping with feeding work later in the week, providing food to the client shelters. She will be in her current location for two weeks total, and then she will be out-processed back home. However, she said there is absolutely a possibility of signing up for another term in the near future. Sherry wanted to remind everyone that the best way to provide assistance is to make monetary donations so that responders have the ability to purchases needed supplies rather than attempting to find what they need in miscellaneous donations.

As Hurricane Irma approaches Florida and parts of the South East U.S., she advised anyone in the path of danger to sign up for the Red Cross Safe and Well Program. The program allows individuals to provide their name, address and other important information and then they have the ability to check in as safe through the Safe and Well Page at RedCross.org to alert loved ones in other parts of the country of their status.