As submitted by volunteer Claude Demster

When "9/11" happened I felt the same horror,rage, and helplessness that practically all Americans felt, probably the hardest feeling of all to cope with was the frustration of not being able to do anything about it--watching the TV footage of the rescue attempts, one of the segments showed a young lady in a Red Cross vest passing out water to rescue personel, and I thought "I could do that!", so acting on that thought, I called the Greater Ozarks Chapter, and asked if they could use me--a day or so later Scott called me and invited me to attend an introduction to the Red Cross,--I attended, and signed up for classes made available to us by the chapter to become qualified for the DSHR system, then was assigned to NYC in November to support the Red Cross effort there--that experience gave me a feeling of being "part of", and also gave me a new direction to take my life--through a series of lifechanging events (heart surgery in '98--My wife dying in '01) I was in real need of something worth while to spend my time and talents on--The American Red Cross has given me the opportunity to not only "give a little back" but to again feel useful, to maybe make a little difference, to maybe make the world around me a little better place--so Thank You, Red Cross, for blessing me with Opportunity---Claude