Assistant Editor
Volunteers are still being sought to help Catholic Charities of the Brooklyn Diocese as it aids people affected by the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City.
Those volunteering to travel to Brooklyn or Queens are being asked to commit to at least two consecutive days of work, performing whatever duties are asked of them. Specific areas of expertise (i.e. fiscal or administration experience) are taken into consideration.
Catholic Charities will reimburse volunteers for transportation and accommodations, and arrange both. Dinner is also covered.
Computing
Sister Nola Brunner, CSJ, diocesan vicar for religious, spent the second week of January in New York City. She helped to stock a food pantry and did office work at Catholic Charities' main Brooklyn headquarters.
"When they found out I could use Excel on the computer, I spent a lot of time entering claims people had made that hadn't been processed yet," she added. "Some people needed money for food, reimbursement for medical expenses, living expenses. There were a lot of claims they hadn't gotten to; some of them go back months."
Sister Nola said that one woman came into the Catholic Charities office bringing an uncle to serve as a translator because she didn't speak English. The woman had lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack and hadn't had any financial help since.
"She might have fallen through the cracks because she didn't speak English," Sister Nola explained.
Vouching for it
Catholic Schools Office bookkeeper Vicki Bullis volunteered in Queens for two days recently. She spent most of her time writing up vouchers for people in need to get aid.
"I don't think the doorbell stopped" during the entire visit, she said. "People came in [because] they had groceries downstairs; people came with small children to talk to the social workers."
The volunteer called it "an experience" to meet scores of people affected by the disaster, especially limousine drivers and people in the food service field. She said many came looking for help from Catholic Charities with everything from rent to car payments.
By the time Ms. Bullis left two days later, she said the office she volunteered at had caught up on doling out vouchers and was able to deal immediately with people in need who were just arriving at the office.
Ground Zero
Sister Nola, who visited Ground Zero while in New York, said that cleanup efforts "are down below ground level now, so all the debris you saw on the news is gone, but the memorials are still there.
"In the surrounding neighborhoods, the stores are all closed and all black -- I suppose from soot -- except one florist. He was the only one open in this whole long block. He had a few potted plants he was trying to sell. Talk about hope in the face of all that destruction."
Volunteering, she said, "was quite an experience. I'm certainly not sorry I did it."
(For information on volunteering, call 453-6650.)