Near ground zero for the holidays

Nine people from the area volunteer to spend the season helping people who were directly affected by the terrorist attacks.

By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 25, 2001

It isn't easy to be separated from family at Christmas, but for 19-year-old Jessica Mackert, the pain is compounded by the misery, need and confusion that collect around her every day.

Mackert, a Red Cross employee from Clearwater, is spending this Christmas in New York City, helping the thousands of people who lost homes, jobs or family in the terrorist attacks of September. Some need help paying rent and utility bills. Some can't find a way to put food on the table.

"We had a woman come in who was having a very difficult time with Christmas," Mackert said in a telephone interview Monday from the family assistance center at Pier 94 in Manhattan. "I felt awful about it. We did what we could. We try to keep them talking and to let them know that the situation isn't hopeless. But sometimes, when you can't do all you want to do, it's very hard."

Mackert is one of nine Red Cross volunteers from the St. Petersburg-Tampa area who have given up their holidays to help the survivors and innocent bystanders of Sept. 11. In all, 35 volunteers have been in the New York and Washington, D.C., areas in the past three months. Some have gone twice, one three times.

"They called me on the 18th (of December) and asked me if I was available to come up here," said Bernie McGuire, 50, a Red Cross volunteer from Largo. "How could I not be? I couldn't turn them down. I've been here ever since."

The holiday has made the separation from family difficult for McGuire.

"I miss my wife. I miss my kids. I miss my grandkids," McGuire said. "They all got together and called me early this morning, and my little 5-year-old grandson kept asking, "When are you coming home, Pop-Pop?'

"After Sept. 11, we talked to the little ones and explained that there were some children up here who lost their mommies or daddies. They understand I'm up here helping those kids, so while they ask when I'm coming back, they understand."

Although the American Red Cross has been under fire for its plan to divert money raised for Sept. 11 victims to other relief efforts, no hint of scandal has touched the volunteers. They have continued to respond to the needs of survivors.

"There are still new people coming in every day," Mackert said. "They're the ones who have tried to make a go of it in the last three months against all the odds, and have had to admit now that they can't do it alone. They're all lost and confused and disoriented."

McGuire, who calls himself "a floater," which means he goes where he is needed and does what must be done, spent much of Christmas Eve at the Brooklyn chapter. It is the headquarters for the disaster relief effort.

"There are all kinds of programs to help these people get the assistance they need and deserve," he said. "But the survivors don't know where to reach out, and that's one of the things we can do: get people with those who can give them what they need. That's very rewarding."

McGuire, a graphic designer in normal life, says there isn't much to be done anymore at ground zero, where the World Trade Center buildings once stood, although the Red Cross continues to provide help for the workers there, who labor in shifts as long as 14 hours.

Despite the heartache, there are rewards, Mackert said.

"There was one woman who had a case worker who came here on short notice from a warm-weather place," she recalled. "He didn't have a chance to get any warm clothes, and all of a sudden he's in New York City in December. He kept saying how cold he was, and this woman went out and bought him a sweater. He didn't want to take it, but she kept insisting. It was very nice."

Although she is living in a small hotel instead of her home, Mackert has a little bit of home with her.

"I'm away from my aunts and my cousins, my mother and my grandmother," she said. "But they're proud of what I'm doing. My mother sent me up a box of Christmas presents, and a little tree and ornaments for my hotel room. So I'm fine."

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