“With every response that I attended and was deployed to, the memories have always stayed with me. Sandy is still fresh in my mind because I saw a lot of sadness. As a case manager, I was out in the field and I was going door-to-door to see the people that needed help. All of the people that we visited were undocumented. It was a struggle in the beginning because they’re not sure who you are. Since they’re undocumented, they’re reluctant to talk to you or get help from you—even though they lost everything. That was hard, trying to tell them that we’re not a government agency and that we don’t share information with government agencies—that we’re an independent charitable organization that is there to help the people that suffered during the hurricane. So when it’s time to help others, I don’t hesitate, I don’t delay. What you can do right there and then means something. You realize how lucky you are because you are the one who is giving the helping hand, not the one on the receiving end. And that in itself, is a blessing already.”

“To better myself is always a struggle. I will never say that I have learned enough. I can always do a better job. I can always do a good job, but it’s hard to do the best job you can. That’s why I try not to do just one thing. I don’t just do response, but I also do home fire campaigns and I’m a spotter during marathons. There’s always opportunities that will let you participate. The Red Cross gives me a platform to be able to go out and help other people and meet other people that share the common goal of helping out those in need. Volunteering is using the Red Cross’ resources to benefit those who really need help. My only regret is that I didn’t join any sooner.”

Click here to read an interview with Henry Chu on our Greater New York blog.

“I’m half Chinese. Both my Chinese grandparents were born in the United States. My grandmother actually was born here, and when she was 2 years old, she moved back to China because of the war and then came back when she was 19. Although she was an American born citizen, she culturally grew up as living in China. My father and his brothers were all born here, and I was born here, making me fourth generation.

My father grew up down south, moved to New York as a teenager, met my mom working at the Garment District when he was still a teenager. My mom comes from an American Jewish family from Brooklyn. I am a New York story. My parents were a mixed-raced couple when it was not as common. I was born and raised in Brooklyn in Canarsie until we moved out to Long Island when I was twelve. Since I could remember, I’ve been Sammy Chu, the Chinese Jew. It’s probably some of the first words I learned to string together. I had a great childhood. I had exposure to both my Chinese heritage and my Jewish heritage and I’m just as comfortable grabbing dim sum on the weekend as I am going to a Jewish deli and having a pastrami and kreplach soup. Even growing up, I had to learn early on that I could fit in nowhere or I could fit in everywhere. Now I’ve modulated it to say I have to make the choice to fit in where I want to fit in.

In Brooklyn in Canarsie, there was a lot of diversity. When you grow up that way, you take it for granted, it’s just normal. Being half Chinese, I realized some people out of curiosity, some people out of ignorance, or some people just straight up being mean, treated me in different regards as either a novelty or even an oddity. When I moved out to Long Island, it was more homogenous, mostly White. I did have a difficult time when I first moved out here. I didn’t feel as if I was treated as a novelty or oddity. It was really apparent aggression and bullying. I got into a lot of fights when I first moved out here. A lot of that stopped because I guess it was a form of assimilation. I joined the wrestling team, and I have the benefit of being a bigger kid, a tougher kid, but I think about kids that don’t have that. They’re not able to defend themselves physically, and sometimes there’s even a language barrier that I didn’t have to deal with.

My Asian roots really became the forefront of my importance when I was appointed Laborer Commissioner for the county. People started reaching out once it was in the newspaper. Asian Americans that lived in Suffolk and even around the island started reaching out to express their happiness that the government became more representative of them. I didn’t really have a great conscious of that going into the position, but starting at that point I really tried to live up to the responsibility of that and realized that as someone who became a higher profile Asian American serving in government and even in business, there is a responsibility.

All of us, whether we’re vulnerable or not, set the tone for those that are in vulnerable positions. The last several years have really brought that home for me and made me more appreciative of the responsibility I have as a leader and as a representative of our community and an everyday ambassador.

My first substantial interactions with the Red Cross were in my days as a county official in the aftermath of Sandy. I was the lead county official for response and recovery after Sandy for Suffolk County and the Red Cross touched Long Islanders in so many different ways. That was the beginning of when I started having a really great appreciation for all the things the Red Cross does. After I left my government role about a year after that, Neela Mukherjee Lockel, who was then the new CEO of Long Island Red Cross, asked if I would consider joining the board and I jumped at the opportunity because by that time, I had grown to have a really great respect and appreciation for the Red Cross in a very immediate way.

Whether it's Sound the Alarm and smoke detector installations, whether it's all the amazing support provided for armed services and families, blood donations and collections, the Red Cross does so many different things for so many different people. That was a real fascination and it only made my appreciation for the Red Cross grow. What I came to surmise over time was that being on all the individual acts and services the Red Cross does, is that it’s a unique organization. So much so that, in terms of service around the world, the Red Cross exists to deliver human compassion whenever it's needed the most. That to me really speaks well to the organization, and not to get sappy, but it speaks well of just humankind. That that sentiment exists and that it’s a sentiment that can be applied universally in so many different places in the world.”

–Sammy Chu (Lindenhurst, NY)

"Until you step out on the field, you don’t know what you are facing. I started with a Home Fire campaign and that was my first experience of being able to see how badly people could be affected by a fire. When I went out, I was fulfilling the educator role, teaching people how to avoid fire accidents and informing them on disaster preparedness. Later I heard that almost 300 lives were saved due to our previous installation of smoke detectors in the homes. I always had that inner need to help others, and working with the Red Cross really gave me that feeling of 'okay I’m really helping people out here'."

“I actually started as a youth volunteer in 1995. In 2000, I became a customer service assistant at the Queens office. My job was to take care of the day-to-day operations at the Queens area office. When you're a 20-year-old, you're just thinking it’s a job that didn't pay well. But once 9/11 happened, my peripheral just opened up, like a total 360. It was one of those a-ha moments where I finally figured out this is what the Red Cross does and it's amazing how they do it. We are the soldiers of humanity.

This was my first taste of getting into this type of disaster operations, transitioning from community outreach to disaster operations.

Shea Stadium, which is now Citi Field, became a respite center for 9/11 rescue workers that were coming in from all over the country. The Mets organization allowed us to bring in cots and blankets and create a rehab area where people could take a shower, rest up, and then be bused back to Ground Zero. Our volunteers, including myself went to Shea Stadium to assist with the operations over there.

When you see the work we do, whether it be physical, such as providing sheltering and staffing a respite center to even mental health. Mental health was not something I even thought of as a young person, but after 9/11, I realized the mental health aspect of things, of how it can affect an individual, including myself.”

“We worked with really great disaster mental health workers, and they really opened my eyes because of the young volunteers we had. A lot of our volunteers came from Stuyvesant High School, which was in the impact zone of 9/11. Most of them saw things they probably shouldn’t have seen at the World Trade Center. As they evacuated the building, the towers had already crumbled and as they were running, the dust was just chasing them. That type of traumatic experience, when you're dealing with 14- to 18-year-olds, some of them were sleepless. There was sadness, but there was also a lot of hate. We had one individual of the Muslim faith and he was afraid of going out in public.

Mental Health came and said this is something we have to deal with. This is a great opportunity to get all the youngsters in and we had several sessions of like 25 to 30 people. We had an open discussion about what happened and how does everyone feel. It was a good session for them to decompress and when you saw the eyes of those individuals, we changed the lives of those youngsters. I think if we didn't intervene then, their negativity would probably have impacted their lives today.

After doing my time at the Queens chapter, I went over to Disaster Services in staffing. I went into logistics and field communications, and the communication part was really my thing. I was really into radio operations. Technology was something I really wanted to get into. My logistics and field communications experience is the reason why I was hired over at New York City OEM.
9/11 opened an opportunity for me to understand the emergency response aspect of it. And that is why I'm pretty much here now at this agency. I’m now the program manager of our emergency support center here in New York City. It was an evolution in my career.”

“Originally I had worked for the Red Cross as a Safety Town instructor. Safety Town is a program where we teach incoming kindergarteners disaster prevention skills so we teach them how to wash their hands, look both ways before crossing the street, how to call 911, and they work with the fire and police departments. Since I had been working with that program for so long, the board thought I would be a good fit to educate them about youth matters. It’s funny even now as a board member after 3 years, I’m still the youngest one there. I’m only 24 and everyone else is in their mid 50’s so there’s a little bit of an age gap, but whenever I'm sitting among all of these incredibly influential people that are so generous and compassionate about their time, I’m overwhelmed with a sense of pride and joy knowing that I am a part of this team that is so involved in making sure that the Red Cross follows that mission.“

"When someone told me about Red Cross, I immediately thought that all they do is teach CPR, first aid, and lifeguarding. I was a little hesitant, but my friend motivated me to join. I started out doing community outreach–handing out flyers and pamphlets at health fairs, street fairs. And then from there I became a First Aid/CPR instructor. I liked the camaraderie, the people, the various departments that we could merge into. There are a lot of different roles, and if you find one role that doesn’t quite fit you, there’s always a role that might be a better fit. It’s just like shoes and clothes.”