"You never stopped to think about how tired or stressed you were. Most days I just felt motivated and inspired to work." – Bradley Hove, disaster management volunteer, Canadian Red Cross
They were at the core of the Hurricane Sandy response effort—lifting, sorting, organizing and driving. For twelve hours a day or more, they worked feverishly to ensure donations of food, water and personal items reached the front lines. Their efforts weren't seen or highlighted on the news, but they were the vital army of logistical volunteers that worked through the aftermath.
More than 15,000 volunteers responded to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, over 60 were with the Canadian Red Cross. They came from all walks of life—doctors, business owners, firefighters, farmers. Bradley Hove, warehouse worker and disaster management volunteer, was one of them.
With three small children at home, all under five, Bradley knew the sacrifice was significant. The deployment would take him away for at least three weeks, leaving his wife to manage their family on her own. "It was a very difficult decision, but when I envisioned those people in need, I knew I had to go," he said.
When Bradley arrived at his post, he was surprised at the size of the warehouse. The length of a football field and as tall as a five-story apartment building, it housed 18 bays for transport trucks. It was full to capacity with donations, and the coordinators were desperate to get things organized and out the door. "It didn't matter what you did for a living, they needed people to just start sorting items for distribution," remembers Bradley. "I had a doctor working in the warehouse with me doing inventory." He also worked alongside a firefighter who had been buried and pulled from the rubble during 9/11. "That was someone who knew what it was like to have his life in the hands of others and there he was paying it forward. I was truly inspired."
Their post was a key warehouse for distributing emergency items to people in New Jersey and Manhattan. Shelters and community centres desperately needing bottled water, clean up kits, hygiene products and clothing. Brad, along with other volunteers from Canada and the United States, operated forklifts, created aisles to move donations and arranged the warehouse items for delivery. Other times, their job required them to truck items to gang-ridden and corrupt neighbourhoods. "You never stopped to think about how tired, stressed or potentially unsafe you were. Most days I just felt motivated and inspired to work," remembers Bradley. "We debriefed every night and talked about things that made us laugh. That's what got us through those days."
Most volunteers worked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day—sometimes longer. Tired and emotionally drained, they were motivated by knowing others, who had nothing, were being helped. They devoted themselves to people they didn't know and would likely never meet. They were the essential yet unsung heroes behind the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.