Volunteering for Disaster: Moments Count Interviews Red Cross Volunteer M. Ann Smith - background photo of Black Hills, SD near Ann's home
Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska gave special recognition to M. Ann Smith on October 26, 2008. They printed the following biography of this remarkable woman:
Ann Smith is being recognized for both her work as a Chadron State College professor and her extensive volunteer work with the American Red Cross.
Smith was 29 years old with three children when she enrolled at Nebraska Western College in Scottsbluff. After two years there, she transferred to CSC and completed a bachelor of science degree in education in just one year and a summer.
For 10 years prior to joining the CSC faculty, Smith was a teacher at Bridgeport, where she coached the school’s first volleyball and girls’ track teams. In her first four years of coaching, her track teams won a Class B state championship and a runner-up trophy. The duties gave her first-hand experience in gender equity. She later served on national committees pertaining to Title IX, the legislation designed to give equal athletic opportunities to females.
She earned a master’s degree from CSC in 1977 and earned a position on the faculty 1980. In her new position, she coached the cross-country team until the school discontinued the sport five years later. She also coached the women’s track team for nine years. She was named chairwoman of CSC’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation Department in 1987.
In 1985, she was CSC’s first recipient of the Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award. She also was active in the Nebraska Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and earned its Honor Award in 1987.
Her involvement with the Dawes County chapter of the Red Cross has been extensive, ranging from training lifeguards to responding to some of the nation’s most prominent disasters. As a member of the National Disaster Human Resource Team, Smith has been deployed to 16 national disasters in 15 states. She spent Christmas vacation of 2001 in New York City to provide relief of the Sept. 11 attacks. She also spent five weeks assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Ann has three children and numerous grandchildren. Her husband, Bud, died in December 2007.
Red Cross Links:
Donate:
The Red Cross always needs donations of money, time and blood. Below find resources to help you contribute in whatever way you choose. There are also links to help you prepare for the unforeseen in your life.
DOWNLOAD 22 different fact sheets in English or Spanish to help you prepare for Fires and Floods or Tsunamis and Volcanos. You name it you’ll find it here! You’ll need Adobe reader installed on your computer to be able to download these fact sheets. You can click here to get Adobe reader.
Click here for the main Red Cross Volunteer page. Be sure to look on this page for links to the Online Orientation, Volunteer Match and Find Your Local Red Cross.
Click here to get assistance with contacting family members who have been involved in a disaster, with finding shelter and supplies, with assistance for military families or to initiate an international trace.
If you are using an iPhone please use the “Download” link to listen in Quicktime.
Moments Count Interviews Dr. David Grand, psychotherapist, author, film maker, producer, and inventor of a revolutionary technique for healing trauma.
Please feel free to download as many copies of this interview as you wish. If you or anyone you know needs this assistance, please provide them with a copy of this interview or with a link to this interview on our website.
To find a trained Brainspotting therapist in your area contact Dr. Grand’s assistant:
Laurie Delaney, BioLateral Business Manager
2415 Jerusalem Avenue, Suite 105
Bellmore, NY 11710
Focusing on a “target image” associated with a traumatic memory, the client is led through a step-by-step process of recalling scenes, emotions and physical sensations while receiving “bilateral stimulation” through guided eye movements, alternating sounds in headphones or alternately receiving squeezes, massaging rubs or taps on the left and right sides of the body. According to Grand, one-time traumas (car accidents, bombings, hurricanes) can be released in one session, even in a few minutes, while deeper disturbances (repeated child abuse, war experiences) may take longer and may involve additional methods of therapy. He provides compelling anecdotal evidence of EMDR’s effectiveness with train engineers traumatized by suicides and accidents on the tracks; survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing and Florida’s Hurricane Andrew; mothers of slain children in Brooklyn; residents of Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Israel and the occupied territories; survivors of child abuse; and professional actors and athletes.
Dr. David Grand produced a special audio CD to be used in conjunction with Ignite the Genius Within by Dr. Christine Ranck and Christopher Lee Nutter. The book is a revolutionary multimedia instrument that provides an experience of heightened self awareness never before delivered in a book. Following no chronological order, providing no doctrine to believe, starting off with the premise that the person who picks it up isn’t learning about anything but themselves, Ignite the Genius Within turns the conventions of creativity and spirituality on their heads. The Artist’s Way for The Matrix generation, Ignite the Genius Within takes creativity out of a realm exclusive to “artists”, and redefines it as the power each of us have to turn every moment of life into a beautiful work of art. Go to the website at to receive a FREE DOWNLOAD of biolateral sound by Dr. David Grand.
Additional Works by Dr. David Grand
I Witness: A play based on personal stories from the 9-11 disaster.
Come Hell or High Water (see trailer below) Documentary of BrainSpotting Healing of trauma victims of Hurricane Katrina. CHHW is currently being submitted to film festivals around the world. Watch for it in theaters in the coming year.
Dr. Grand’s projects in process
STSD, Cracking the Code of Sports Traumatic Stress Disorder with Alan Goldberg. Look for it in 2010.
Trauma Doc: A television reality series in which David Grand travels with victims back to the scene of their trauma to help them confront the trauma and begin their process of healing. Look for it in 2010.
Watch the trailer for Come Hell or High Water, Dr. David Grand’s 2010 documentary covering his work healing trauma victims of hurricane Katrina.
Melody Thacker looked out the window of her office in Phoenix, Arizona, USA each day to the disturbing sight of homeless women and men walking along the street and standing idly in the empty lot across the street. One morning as she watched homeless people shivering in the cold without any warm clothing she decided it was time to give something back.
From a simple starting point she created A Heart For Humanity.
Little did Melody know that unforeseeable twists in the fabric of her own life would cause A Heart For Humanity to evolve to serve two very diverse populations.
Melody has expressed the need for a webcam and computer that will allow her group to expand to provide peer counseling to groups beyond the Phoenix area. If you would like to help with this or in any other way, please contact Melody at aheartforhumanity@yahoo.com or call 623-606-8668
If you or someone you know needs help:
It’s hard to find your way to help when you are in the middle of a crisis. Here are some good information resources to help you if you or someone you know needs information or assistance now:
Rethinking Drinking - Resources from the National Institutes of Health to help yo determine what are unhealthy drinking patterns and what you can do to change them.
Drug Abuse
National Institute on Drug Abuse - Information resources about drug abuse, treatment research, drug testing, addiction science and more…
National Eating Disorders Association – VERY helpful and inspirational website with an 800 helpline, downloadable information, the latest reasearch and more…
In 2008 Zainab Beckett saw a special report on CNN. A small boy begged for his life before a group of soldiers.
When the child turned, they shot him.
They killed him.
Zainab knew this boy’s death was her call to action. ZCD Foundation is the profound purpose grown out of this shattering pain. In less than two years, “Zee” Beckett, her friend Dallas Sisolack, and their ZCD Foundation’s commitment to the motto “Water is Life” has saved the lives of 14,000 people. Her farming, education and construction programs are empowering women and children and giving young people the safety and education they need to improve the future of Sierra Leone.
Red Cross Links:
TheLastStation.com
