By Dan Dowling, Regional Communications Manager
On a clear Tuesday morning a quarter century ago, millions of Americans watched in shock as the events of September 11, 2001, unfolded. As families searched for answers and communities struggled to comprehend the tragedy, American Red Cross volunteers across the country stepped forward to help.
Among them were Northern New Englanders Julie Lastoka, Sue Steinhurst, Donna Hastings, Starr Gilmartin, Lizzie Baker and Cheri Lundblad. The experiences of these six women during and after 9/11 would not only shape their lives, but also inspire decades of service.
“We started getting phone calls and we didn't know what had happened. It was crazy.”
Julie Lastoka was part of the Red Cross staff at the Nashua, New Hampshire chapter on September 11th, 2001. When the first plane hit the North Tower, the phones at the chapter office began ringing. Julie remembers the confusion, urgency and an immediate surge of people wanting to help.
“It was an unbelievable amount of people that either wanted to volunteer or donate blood. What most folks didn't realize, is that without training and being vetted, they couldn't deploy to New York,” Julie remembered.
In the hours and days that followed, millions searched for loved ones, for answers and for ways to help. Across the country, Red Cross volunteers stepped forward.
Over the next few weeks, the chapter added additional phone lines and set up a room so that people who wanted to volunteer could help answer phones. Julie and the rest of the staff kept the chapter running, teaching classes, supporting military families and helping with blood donors.
Today, Julie enjoys teaching CPR and first aid and is still volunteering with the Red Cross as an instructor. She is also a regular blood donor, closing in on 10 gallons of lifesaving donations.
Vermonter Sue Steinhurst was working in the school kitchen at Montpelier High School on the morning of September 11th, 2001. A coworker heard from her daughter that a plane flew into one of the towers at the World Trade Center in New York City.
“As we gradually found out what really happened, we had to keep working and help keep things calm for the students. I remember that it was a beautiful fall day. It just didn't seem real,” she said.
Sue had only started volunteering with the Red Cross earlier that year. She was in the midst of completing her required trainings and responding to local home fires. Eventually, with enough experience, she was able to deploy in January 2002 to a Family Assistance Center in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“By January, the clients who came to the center had worked in the towers but were able to evacuate or worked or lived in the area,” she explained.
Sue assisted people with payments for rent, utilities, clothes, food and other expenses because they no longer had jobs.
“I remember one man sitting down with me and taking out a Time Life book about 9/11 and showing me a picture of people walking down a staircase in one of the towers and pointing to one of the people in the picture and saying, ‘That’s me,’” she recalled.
Sue has now been a Red Cross volunteer for more than 25 years. She has served as a Disaster Action Team member, case worker, emergency response vehicle driver, shelter volunteer and mass care responder.
“What was important to me was knowing that in some small way I was able to help people at a time when they needed support the most,” Sue said.
Dr. Donna Hastings was working in her psychology practice in Merrimack, New Hampshire, on September 11th. Her daughter was living in New York City, and her husband was away at a conference. As events unfolded that morning, she vividly remembers her co-worker in tears.
Hours later, Donna learned her own daughter was safe. She knew then that she would get the call from the Red Cross to respond as a disaster mental health volunteer. She ended up being sent to support the New Jersey headquarters in Newark.
“Everyone that they had locally available had already been sent to Ground Zero. They needed a supervisor in Newark, and I volunteered to go there,” Donna remembered.
When she arrived, she was told that the Red Cross chapter in Newark was opening a Compassion Center for Port Authority staff. They had lost about 10% of their officers and civilian employees.
“I looked over my shoulder and there was no one behind me. We started calling people,” said Donna.
They opened the next morning with 32 disaster health services and disaster mental health volunteers and served more than 90 families that day. Later, she remembered standing in front of the wall of family pictures of the missing.
“I eventually couldn't look at it without crying because I knew that these were happy moments of people who were no longer living,” she recalled.
Donna responded for a second time just after Christmas that year to a Multi-Agency Response Center in Liberty Park, New Jersey. Ten years later, she responded again at the private opening of the 9/11 Museum. She said the experience was healing.
“As a psychologist in private practice, I saw family members and friends of the deceased and my work continued. For myself, it affected me deeply,” she reflected.
For 25 years, Donna has been committed to the Red Cross mission. While no longer responding to home fires, she remains a dedicated volunteer.
On September 12, 2001, less than 24 hours after the attacks, Starr Gilmartin drove 12 hours from Maine to Somerset County, Pennsylvania, with two fellow Red Cross disaster mental health volunteers. Her first major deployment would be to the Family Assistance Center serving families of United Flight 93. She had just joined the Red Cross a few months earlier.
“The stories that were shared with us of the victims, by their families, will never leave me. It inspired me to continue to volunteer with the American Red Cross,” Starr shared.
Starr accompanied family members to the site of the plane crash and provided emotional support. Families of victims of United Flight 93 gathered to pay respects to their loved ones who perished on that flight.
“I enjoy volunteering and providing emotional and psychological support to those who have suffered from man-made and natural disasters. It is something that may be experienced by any of us,” she said.
Starr continues to volunteer with her local Disaster Action Team, responding to home fires and helping families through some of the hardest days of their lives. She remains on the disaster mental health team for national deployments.
Lizzie Baker, a pediatrician from Harpswell, Maine, was a junior at Brown University on the day of the September 11th attacks. When she realized the gravity of what had happened that morning, she was instantly compelled to get involved with the relief efforts.
“I spent a few hours calling my local American Red Cross office and ultimately walked several miles to begin volunteering that day,” said Lizzie.
Lizzie and her roommate signed up to become Red Cross disaster action team members and committed themselves to six weeks of service at Ground Zero while still enrolled in college. Within three weeks of the disaster, she was dispatched to New York.
“I am a lifelong volunteer, and the American Red Cross seemed the best place to invest my energy and to make a difference,” Lizzie said.
During her deployment, she worked overnight respite shifts at a college near the disaster zone, serving meals, offering resources and sitting with firefighters, police officers and utility workers who were exhausted and grieving.
“My entire career trajectory shifted because of my service during 9/11. It led me to join multiple urban/wilderness search and rescue teams and become an EMT,” reflected Lizzie.
Her service ultimately pivoted her career from philosophy major to physician. Today, Lizzie serves as a blood donor and Red Cross chapter board member, helping draft emergency plans for her community and working to expand access to Red Cross resources.
Cheri Lundblad arrived on one of the first flights allowed back into New York after airspace reopened. The Vermont volunteer worked with families who had lost loved ones and listened as they grieved.
“I worked with a family who lost their son, brother, dad, uncle, spending several days with them, letting them talk, cry and contemplate all that had happened,” Cheri said.
Later that October, Cheri deployed again, serving as an emergency response vehicle driver at Ground Zero. She delivered meals to the respite sites in the area. She still remembers driving past the devastation.
“It really hit me how bad it was to see it up close. Even in late October, there was still paper flying out of the buildings,” Cheri recalled.
Nearly 30 years into her Red Cross journey, Cheri continues to serve because of the clients and volunteers she considers family.
“I believe serving is in my blood, and I will continue to do this until my body says no more,” she explained.
Twenty-five years after September 11, the memories remain vivid, but so does the spirit of service it inspired. Julie, Sue, Donna, Starr, Lizzie and Cheri answered the call during one of the nation's darkest moments and have continued answering it ever since. Through disasters large and small, they have carried forward the Red Cross mission with the same compassion, resilience and humanity that guided them in 2001. Their stories remind us that while tragedy may define a moment, service defines a legacy.
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