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Naylors, Helping Neighbors All Across the Country
Red Cross volunteers Spike and Nancy Naylor travel miles to provide relief
Deborah MacSwain, Special to RedCross.org
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 — It’s a car! It’s a train! No, it’s an ERV—an American Red Cross emergency response vehicle. Each year Red Cross ERVs, thanks to the superhuman efforts of their crews, deliver help and comfort to people in need.
Weighing in at more than seven tons, the boxy white vehicle emblazoned with the red cross emblem is easy to see and identify as it travels through neighborhoods after a disaster. The ERV is a key component of the Red Cross mass care services provided to communities all across the country—wherever and whenever disaster strikes. Crews include Red Cross trained ERV drivers responsible for helping maintain, drive, load and unload the vehicles.
There are more than 1,200 trained ERV drivers nationwide. Most are volunteers, including married couples such as Spike and Nancy Naylor of Colorado Springs, Colo., who work with chapters to deliver and distribute their precious cargo of emergency food, water and other relief supplies to those impacted by a tragedy.
The Naylors are the epitome of the Red Cross volunteer. They carry cell phones so that they can be reached quickly. They traveled to Florida and drove a new ERV back to Colorado Springs, and recently inaugurated the new Colorado Springs ERV by responding to the Victor wildfires.
Like so many Red Cross volunteers, Ms. Naylor has a history with the organization. As a teenager during World War II, she helped roll bandages and later was a first aid trainer for the California Ski Patrol.
After retiring from the California State Fish and Game department, the Naylors decided RVing was for them and toured the country for several years before “settling down.” Looking for something meaningful to do, they started volunteering for the Red Cross in Yuma, Ariz., as Disaster Action Team members, responding to local fires and other disasters. Their introduction to the ERV came in 1999 when they were sent to North Carolina as mass care workers following Hurricane Floyd.
“We were not [originally] trained as ERV drivers, but the crews started changing and there was a need,” Mr. Naylor. “So, we were allowed to take the training and have been an ERV team every since.”
Last year, the Naylors drove an ERV from Ft. Collins, Colo., to Baton Rouge, La., in advance of Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina made landfall, they were reassigned to Monroe, La., where they fed evacuees who were in motels, hotels and a large shelter.
“The state prison and the kitchen at the convention center prepared the meals,” Mr. Naylor explained. “We were given a route for the day, packed up six Cambros—each contain 24 quarts of food, water, coffee or lemonade, cups, paper plates, utensils, cookies and snacks—and left on our first run. Each day we provided between 200 and 800 meals and beverages out of the ERV.”
Floods in West Virginia, wildfires in Arizona, tornadoes in Alabama and hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Virginia and Louisiana as well as the World Trade Center bombings in New York, the Naylors have racked up more miles in an ERV—never the same one—than they can count. They’ve traveled to 18 disaster sites. Some have been “call backs,” serving twice on the same disaster, as they did on the World Trade Center relief effort.
“We were first assigned to New York City and worked out of the respite center near the towers area,” Mr. Naylor said. “I was shocked at what I saw.”
They spent about three weeks in New York City, returned home and were asked to go back to New Jersey to provide mass care for relief workers at the central landfill site.
“It was stressful work, but we were proud to be Red Crossers—able to help and listen, when we were asked, to the stories the workers told of grief and loss,” Ms. Naylor quietly added.
Asked if they cared to share their ages, Ms. Naylor was quick to say “of course.” Both are over 70 years old. They keep physically fit by working out daily on a treadmill, bicycle and weights so that they can maintain requirements to operate the ERV—the full cambros can weigh 75 pounds, taking two people to carry each one.
“At the end of an assignment, the people we have met and helped often give us a card of thanks, hugs and tears—it makes it all worthwhile,” said Ms. Naylor, summing up their Red Cross work.
“It is a good feeling, doing something to make life a little easier for someone else, helping people that are stressed out. The looks on their faces when they see the ERV…they know help is coming.”
Red Cross volunteers and staff trained in mass care provide sheltering and feeding assistance. ERV teams can deliver 500 lunches and 400 drinks per load to disaster survivors, emergency personnel and relief workers. In addition, they distribute other relief supplies such as personal comfort, hygiene and clean-up kits to those in need of them.
Currently, 271 ERV’s are stationed at custodial Red Cross chapters throughout the U.S. Locating them strategically around the country allows the Red Cross to move the vehicles to disaster operations more quickly.
To learn more about becoming a Red Cross disaster volunteer, contact your local Red Cross chapter or visit RedCross.org.
The American Red Cross helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Last year, almost a million volunteers and 35,000 employees helped victims of almost 75,000 disasters; taught lifesaving skills to millions; and helped U.S. service members separated from their families stay connected. Almost 4 million people gave blood through the Red Cross, the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The American Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.
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