ROCKPORT, Maine — Jan Frost was frantically packing Monday afternoon as she prepared to head to Orlando, Florida, Tuesday as a Red Cross volunteer to assist the community reeling in the wake of a mass shooting.
Frost said she will be at a Red Cross family assistance center in Orlando to offer whatever help is needed by families of the victims or those injured.
A gunman opened fire at a nightclub early Sunday morning, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others before being shot to death by police.
Frost of Rockport is a clinical social worker with considerable experience in working with communities struck by tragedies. She first became involved in offering her services through the Red Cross in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“At the time of 9/11, on TV they were saying there was a need for mental health professionals,” Frost said.
She contacted the Red Cross, received training and went to New York City, one of three sites struck in the attacks.
Since then, Frost has responded to Hurricane Sandy at the end of October 2012; the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 when a gunman killed 20 students and six staff members before killing himself; and the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 when three people were killed and 264 injured.
The goal is to meet the immediate needs of people, according to Foster. In a case such as this mass shooting, the Red Cross will be there to provide people information on what services are available. Some of the assistance will include helping family members deal with memorial or funeral services, helping them get a suit jacket to attend a service, or to direct the injured to programs to help in their recovery.
Dealing with these disasters is stressful on the volunteers, Foster said. The Red Cross training includes advice on how to deal with the stress, including taking breaks, going for a walk, reading, or talking with people back home.
At Sandy Hook, Red Cross volunteers went along with police when they had to notify families of victims.
The Red Cross also had a family assistance center in Florida after the loss of the cargo ship El Faro last fall that claimed the lives of 33 people, including four from Maine.
Frost encourages mental health professionals and school counselors to volunteer. She said people can sign up by going to the Red Cross website at redcross.org. The volunteers could be used for a national disaster or a local one such as the Noyes Street fire, which killed five people in Portland in October 2014.
“This tragedy shows that emergencies can happen in any community at any time,” a Red Cross press release issued Monday said about the Orlando shooting. “Right now, the Red Cross has what it needs to support this event both financially and with supplies. While the Red Cross is not accepting financial donations designated specifically for this event, we always need the public to help support the nearly 66,000 other disasters we respond to every year around the country. Donations for Red Cross Disaster Relief are used to help people and communities prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters big and small.”