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Baton Rouge Disaster Operations Headquarters Remembers Sept. 11
Written by
Katie B. Good
, Special to Redcross.org
Monday, September 12, 2005 — BATON ROUGE, La. – Sept. 11 has a special poignancy for many American Red Cross disaster workers. Some lost family or friends; others remember their days at Ground Zero where they helped in the recovery process.
Pastor Matt Wentz, standing atop a power lift, leads
a remembrance service for workers at the Red Cross
disaster operations headquarters in Baton Rouge, La.,
on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
(Photo Credit: Hugh Quinn/American Red Cross) |
Pastor Matt Wentz of La Mars, Iowa, led Red Cross workers at Louisiana’s Baton Rouge headquarters in a remembrance of that day four years ago. Standing on a power lift with a representative from the Baton Rouge Fire Department, Wentz led a brief prayer and moment of silence for those who perished – as well as those who survived – the tragedy.
A fire bell was struck four times, once for each of the four planes that crashed that day. Many of the workers were visibly affected with tissues passed around – the service making old memories fresh again.
Remarkably, Wentz, a father of four, had just returned from a long night as part of the Spiritual Care Team in one of the make-shift morgues where bodies recovered by volunteer morticians are being temporarily located.
Part of his task will be the death notification to families, he said, emphasizing that the team, along with local pastors, plans to contact each family in person – an overwhelming task just in sheer numbers.
“I’ll do it with tears and hugs,” he said.
Wentz is a familiar figure around the Baton Rouge headquarters and at the Staff Shelter at Broadmoor United Methodist Church. With his close-cropped blonde hair and All-American boyish looks, he’s always ready with a friendly word and smile. He’s also well-known for impromptu neck rubs. One night recently, exhausted disaster workers kept him busy for almost two hours with neck massages.
Wentz shakes hands with a representative from the Baton Rouge Fire Department at a remembrance service for Red Cross workers at the Red Cross disaster operations headquarters in Baton Rouge, La., on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
(Photo Credit: Hugh Quinn/American Red Cross) |
Wentz doesn’t see his job as being limited to any one task. Whether it’s playing soccer with the kids or bringing drinking water to a shelter that didn’t have any, he indicates that he sees his calling as a helper.
“My role is to give spiritual care,” he said. “To listen, to love, to cry.”
September 11th, or any other time, Pastor Matt Wentz says that his mission, like that of the Red Cross is, “just helping people.”
Katie B. Goode is with the Western Nevada County Chapter of the American Red Cross in Grass Valley, Calif.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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