Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Light One Candle: Willow Glen resident Tamme Whitaker organized a candlelight remembrance walk down Lincoln Avenue on Sept. 14 in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.




In disaster's aftermath, Willow Glen residents show strength

Two community members head to East Coast sites

By Moryt Milo

Willow Glen residents are doing their part in their community and on the East Coast to help the nation recover after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

One of them is Harry Hall, a 68-year-old disaster-service volunteer with the American Red Cross, who left Sept. 20 for Washington, D.C., to assist in the recovery efforts at the Pentagon. After the attacks, the retired army colonel with more than two decades of experience working in disaster recovery, knew he was about to enter a war zone.

Another is Harold Schapelhouman, a California Task Force leader for the National Urban Search and Rescue Team, who left with his team members Sept. 19 for New York. Schapelhouman, a part of the recovery efforts after the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, knew the horror he was about to face.

Tamme Whitaker is a community member who organized a candlelight walk down Lincoln Avenue the evening of Sept. 14 to help unite the community. On Sept. 10, the 41-year-old sales manager had buried her mother, who died of cancer at age 77, and was still grieving.

For Hall, the call to leave came immediately. It meant getting ready to fly to the Pennsylvania airplane crash site as a Red Cross volunteer.

"When I originally agreed to go [to Pennsylvania], I was stymied by lack of air transport," Hall says. "I had a ticket and was ready, but then I received a call from national headquarters to please not come now."

Officials with the organization's national headquarters told Hall they had enough local manpower in Pennsylvania, but Hall knew it was only a matter of time before they would call again.

As Hall waited, Whitaker, like the rest of the nation, was frozen by the images on television.

"For the remainder of the week, it dawned on me how fortunate I was to have had the time with my mother," Whitaker says.

Her personal loss led her to think about family and friends of the terrorist attack victims who would never have the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones. She also thought about all the young people lost during the tragedy. "My grieving shifted from just 'us and my mom' to the entire world."

On Friday morning she decided the Willow Glen community needed to hold a candlelight walk to honor the victims and pray for their families and friends.

"With all my connections at work and all the people [my family] knows, it was easy to get on the phone," Whitaker says.

Whitaker credits Willow Glen's community spirit and Lincoln Avenue merchants for spreading the word about the walk. Bernie Levine, the owner of the women's clothing store Details, 1322 Lincoln Ave., hung a sign with information about the walk in his store window. All other merchants notified their customers about the event.

At 6:45 p.m., Whitaker was at the corner of Minnesota and Lincoln avenues with a basket of red, white and blue candles, waiting for the community to gather.

At first, the group seemed small, but as friends and families marched down the popular street battling breezes that blew out candles, the crowd grew.

By the time the walk reached the pedestrian crosswalk south of Willow Street, almost 100 adults and children had converged.

As they stood and recited the Lord's Prayer, which was followed by the national anthem, cars stopped and onlookers watched reverently. When the singing was over, cars honked and people shouted, "God bless America."

Willow Glen's community enthusiasm and patriotism was also deeply felt by Harold Schapelhouman as he and his task force were given their orders to ship out for ground zero in New York City.


Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Veteran Volunteer: Willow Glen resident Harry Hall, a volunteer with the Red Cross for the past 48 years, recently left for the Red Cross Disaster Operations Center near the Pentagon and will be coordinating volunteers at the terrorist attack sites for the next three weeks.




The team, dispatched by Gov. Gray Davis' office, took the California flag and a State Office of Emergency Services representative to New York. He said he felt honored to represent the state.

Schapelhouman and his team had been deployed to Oklahoma City after the bombing in 1995 by convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh. During that search-and-rescue mission, 168 lives were lost. It was an experience California Task Force 3 team members will never forget. On Sep. 19 they were deployed again and prepared to face the realities of their mission.

"Our experiences in Oklahoma City have taught us the grim realities of what we will be facing," said Schapelhouman in a prepared statement. "During the event, we were a rescue team that rescued no one alive, but in retrospect, we were able to rescue the spirit of the people of Oklahoma and the nation by helping to bring closure to the families by giving them back their loved ones."

American Red Cross volunteer Harry Hall began volunteering for the Red Cross in the early '80s, teaching first aid and CPR classes.

In 1982, the Red Cross found itself with only one instructor to teach disaster-recovery classes. The organization was in dire need of additional teachers and called Hall. It trained him in disaster recovery, and he became qualified to teach others in disaster recovery work.

Hall says that anyone can be trained as a disaster-relief service worker on a national or local level, provided they are in good health and have some type of work skill like counseling or teaching. On a national level, trained workers need to be willing to travel to assignments and remain there for a minimum of three weeks. But he also says that if people are unavailable to travel they can be trained to help in local disaster work like the Morgan Hill and Loma Prieta earthquakes.

Hall knows a disaster call can come anytime. On a moment's notice, he could be flying anywhere in the world. This was the case when his volunteer work took him as far as Guam to aid people affected by the destruction caused from Typhoon Russ in 1990.

Hall is now the senior adviser to one of the directors for Red Cross preparedness at its national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Since 1984, he has been on more than 40 national assignments. From decades of experience, Hall knew the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would require an extensive Red Cross response, which would go beyond the required three- to four-week stay.

Hall also knows the need for loved ones to find closure. As one of the first sent out to a disaster scene, he knows the Red Cross will be providing assistance to families. "Many families will want to come to the disaster site," Hall says.

Hall's specific responsibilities at any disaster are to orient people to the situation and provide emergency training for volunteers who walk in wanting to help.

Right after the terrorist attacks, Hall received telephone calls from throughout the country asking him to help them locate friends and family. Hall says they called because they knew he was connected with the Red Cross.

Hall says his adrenaline was running high as he waited to receive his orders and wanted to do something. He helped the Red Cross, which teamed up with the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and KNTV on Sept. 18 for a telethon that raised almost $55,000.

On Sept. 20, the American Red Cross flew Hall to Washington, D.C., instead of Pennsylvania. He will assist in disaster recovery in Washington, D.C., and New York.

Before leaving, several firefighters at his church shared their grief over the loss of their fellow firefighters in New York City. Hall says, "They were shaken by it all ... About all you can do is put your arm around their shoulders and listen to what they have to share."

How to help

The American Red Cross welcomes individuals interested in being trained as disaster-service workers to sign up for classes. Contact the American Red Cross at 2731 N. First Street, San Jose, CA 95134, or call 408.577.2113 for more information.

Blood donations can be made to the American Red Cross. Call 800.448.3543.

Money donations can be made to the United Way's September 11th Fund, at United Way of the Bay Area, 50 California St., Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111-4696. For more information, call 415.772.4348. Donations can also be made to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, Santa Clara Valley Chapter, 2731 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95134. For more information, call 408.577.2113.

Tips can be provided to the FBI by calling 866.483.5137 or on the web at www.ifccfbi.gov.

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