Due to the nature of this deployment, these blogposts have been on hold until they have been cleared for release. This has been a super controlled and well organized disaster response as a whole. My teammates who have been on critical response deployments before, say that the response for man-made disasters seems to be more […]
Day 4: Critical Response Team & Wally Read More »
Today started with a press conference where we stood with city officials and the other relief organizations in front of a line of reporters (crazy!). And then it ended with a nap on top of play-doh. It was a quieter day overall for us in our play space. One pre-teen girl seemed eager to talk
Day 3: Play-Doh Naps Read More »
So, you guys. Remember when I said yesterday that I wasn’t completely convinced that leaving lots of responsibilities to come here so quickly was the smartest decision? Well, I’ve changed my mind. Today was incredible. I want to tell you all the details and reasons why, but security and privacy for the families here on
Day 2: I’ve Changed My Mind Read More »
Today was a long day of travel, and layovers, and mechanical issues on planes, and trying to wrap up details for an all-of-a-sudden week away that I’m not totally convinced I should have taken. But my child life team and boss are amazingly supportive. They have made some real sacrifices to help me be here,
Day 1: Lots I Don’t Know Read More »
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of his horrific event and those providing aid, relief, and comfort. We are especially thinking of the children affected everywhere and the child life specialists in the area. Here is one helpful resource: Talking to Children about the Shooting.
We had a great Rapid Response planning meeting yesterday in Tampa, Florida! Leaders of CLDR and Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) flew in to meet with 7 Florida child life specialists. Some are pictured here including Erin Silber who has agreed to be the Tampa CDS Coordinator ([email protected]). We also met with Red Cross staff to
Florida Rapid Response Read More »
Several of us went through the Red Cross “out processing” early this morning. We had to do a bunch of paperwork, etc. but it was much simpler than the in-processing on the first day. As a parting gift, the Red Cross gave us each a huge hat with MILLER LIGHT on it. We have no
2013 Oklahoma Tornadoes – Goodbyes Read More »
Since disasters don’t recognize weekends, we are each required to take a day off at some point. Mine was today. Yesterday, I could tell I was getting worn out because I was ready to leave by the end of the day instead of wanting to stay and play. It makes me sad though because soon
2013 Oklahoma Tornadoes- Day Off Read More »
We had the priveledge of front row seats to a concert today. This little girl belted out her original songs for quite a while! Most of the words we couldn’t get but at one point she was singing about “listening to my mama!” She threw in a couple dance moves too. Pearl still found the
2013 Oklahoma Tornadoes- Best CDS Picture Award Read More »
INSANE! That’s what today was! We were overloaded with kids and had a waiting list and all the kids were super hyped-up! We had a record number of 63 kids total by closing time. I took a short break to swollow some food in a different part of the building and I was shocked to
2013 Oklahoma Tornadoes- Food Before Play Read More »