"Being a volunteer – It’s my Calling"
Anne Herbert’s mother went to visit her mother in Tuskegee, Alabama. Due to Herbert’s urgency to get started, she arrived early and was born at Tuskegee Institute. At the age of three, the family moved to East Chicago, Indiana. Herbert attended School in Hammond. Sometime in her early twenties, Herbert moved to Washington for job opportunities and worked there for the next thirty years. While in DC, Herbert volunteered and worked on several political campaigns. Back home, Herbert’s Mom was aging and a couple of relatives were battling illnesses. Herbert came home to visit and decided to move back home to be with her family in 2004.
One day as she was watching the news during Hurricane Katrina, Herbert was deeply moved by the plea of an eight-year-old for help. Herbert’s heart was so touched that she wanted to do more. She decided to call the Red Cross to volunteer. Herbert said she had no idea that she would be deployed, thinking that she would be placed in an office setting. She received CPR and First Aid training. In a month, she was sent to Biloxi, Mississippi as part of the second response team where she was assigned to feeding and procurement. Part of Herbert’s responsibilities placed her in charge of getting food and working in the kitchen.
Katrina was the worst disaster in the United States in history. Herbert said she stayed in Mississippi for three weeks and did any and everything needed. Red Cross volunteers are only allowed to stay in situations for three weeks for psychological reasons. Before returning home, everyone is given a mental assessment.
Herbert said the deployment made her more sensitive toward people. She said constantly hearing people complain about not having this or that but seeing people devastated and who have lost everything, even their pride, does something to you. People who volunteer for the Red Cross must be compassionate people, and it is truly not meant for everyone, Herbert said.
The situation in Mississippi was emotionally challenging. Herbert said they had to live under drastic conditions, no electricity, and no water to take a bath. However, they were fortunate enough to be close to a Naval base that offered a warehouse to stay in. The temperature was 100 degrees and over 500 volunteers were sleeping on carts and washing up outside. The situation was very emotional. It is not for everyone even though they want to be givers.
Eventually semi-trucks with mobile shower stalls were brought in so the workers could take showers. It was like a luxury. People would get up at four or five in the morning to take showers and be ready to work by 8:00 a.m. Some days they worked fourteen hours.
Herbert was also deployed for three weeks on the East Coast in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. They worked along the coastline. The difference between Sandy and Katrina was that Sandy struck along the coastline and Katrina tore up inland. Living conditions were closer to regular in New Jersey. They went to the disaster area every day to help with feeding and sheltering.
Locally Herbert says she works mostly in situations that handle fires, working to assist families find places to live and setting up temporary shelters. The worse local disaster she remembers is when kids were burned up in Hammond, Indiana on Sibley Blvd. Temporary shelters were set up until they were able to help the family find a place to live. Herbert said they worked with the family for four or five months. Since that time, she has been in touch with the grandmother and would occasionally stop by to visit on a personal level.
At the urging of friends, fellow board members, and volunteer workers, Herbert became involved in politics in a run for Hammond City Council in the Third District where she lives. Herbert says she felt there was a need for different representation. Although unsuccessful, the people around her believe in her and are the reason she became involved and will continue to serve and volunteer in her community.
Herbert serves on many boards and volunteers for St. Monica, St. Luke’s Church in Gary, the Hammond Boys and Girls Club, Mt. Zion Pleasant Senior Citizen Home in Hammond. She also serves as Vice President of the Hammond Neighborhood Crime Watch, volunteers for the Hammond Park Foundation, Hammond Black History Coalition and the 4-Quarters For Life Summer Mentoring program that hosts football and cheerleading camp in Hammond and East Chicago.
Herbert has volunteered all over Northwest Indiana. She recalls a moment during Hurricane Katrina when she went to a house that was just a shell. All that remained were the beams. The one thing that caught her attention in the midst of all that was remaining was a string dangling in the wind with a light bulb that had not been touched.
This is nothing but God, she thought to herself. It was such an amazing sight to see that bulb, completely undisturbed in a metaphorical representation.
Herbert said she has gone from one disaster to another and feels volunteering is her calling.
“If someone had told me years ago that I would be volunteering today, I would have not believed it. I have never been an outside person. Most of everything I do involves being outside. This is my calling.”