On a break from nursing, she flew to Hawaii with the Red Cross
In August, Marcia Donnellan decided to take a break from her long career as a mental health nurse.
At first, she wasn’t sure how she would spend her time off. But in September, when she flew down to Florida to help her sister-in-law clean up after a hurricane, she became intrigued by the Red Cross volunteers she saw there.
By October, she was in Maui, sleeping on an air mattress in a gym while she worked as a Red Cross mental health volunteer helping those affected by devastating wildfires.
Those fires in August killed more than 100 people and displaced thousands.
She stayed for more than three weeks, working every day to listen to andfind resources for those affected.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said in an interview at the Strip District office of the southwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the Red Cross. “There’s just a lot of evidence of the fires. Until you see it in person. … I honestly had no words.”
Donnellan, 58, worked as a nurse for decades, specializing in mental health for most of her career. She worked in research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland and at St. Clair Hospital, in the emergency room, inpatient units and in the outpatient psychiatric group program.
She resigned from her nursing job in August, just before Hurricane Idalia hit Florida, destroying her sister-in-law’s house.
Newly available, she flew down for a week to help. “I was just helping her move all the waterlogged stuff out and whatnot, and the Red Cross was down there,” she said. “A light bulb went off.”
Still in Florida, she logged on to their website and signed up to volunteer for both medical disaster health services and disaster mental health. Back at home in Bethel Park, she flew through the required training courses, and helped with a few house fires before she saw a posting for mental health volunteersneeded in Hawaii.
“I said to my husband, ‘I’m free, I’m not working right now,’ and he
said, ‘Go for it.’ ”
About 48 hours later, she was off to Maui.
Thousands of people displaced by the wildfires are still living in hotels around the island, which is where Donnellan would visit them with the Red Cross. At first, Donnellan slept on a blow-up mattress in a gymnasium, waking up early for a 7:30 a.m. meeting before they would drive nearly an hour away, working until 5:30 or 6:30 in the evening. When she was there, some of the areas destroyed by the fire were just reopening, and residents were only then able to see the remnantsof their homes.
At times, she was the first person that survivors spoke to about what they had endured during the fires. They told her about losing loved ones, about losing their homes, and about the uncertainty of the future.
“I picked my little place back in the corner behind the caseworkers and if somebody started crying, they’d look at me and say, ‘ Would you like to talk to this person,’ or they might call me a distress counselor.”
She would also talk to caseworkers, many of whom were local to Maui and had been hired by the Red Cross. “We would be just chit-chatting and I would ask how they are and maybe someone was crying because of what they are listening to, day in and day out,” she said.
She ended up staying for three and a half weeks, returning home in November.
Since she’s been back,
she’s volunteered with the Red Cross for more people in thePittsburgh area who have had house fires, and made connections with many other RedCross volunteers.
She’s not sure what the future holds for herself in terms of a return to nursing. But she knows it will involve volunteeringwith the Red Cross.
“I’m in. I mean, the help
that they give is amazing,” she said. “The clients that I’ve helped locally are so appreciative, and it’s all free. I’m going to be doing this forever.”
Interested in volunteering? Head to redcross.org/volunteertoday.