Ever since I have been writing this column, I have featured volunteers from the Red Cross five times. This one will be the sixth. It shows how important the Red Cross is.
Over the last few years, we have been inundated with floods, earthquakes, and forest fires. In each case the Red Cross served to lessen the consequences. This resulted in a call I made to Daniel Hartman to see if he had a volunteer to recommend to be featured in this column.
Hartman is the regional communications manager of the American Red Cross of the Eastern New York region. His response was; “Yes, and that would be Doug Cox.”
As a youngster in the third grade Doug Cox became interested in photography and had a darkroom in his basement. Over the next few years, he gained experience taking pictures for the fun of it, like most of us do. But then, he took it to the next level and developed a thriving photo business through high school doing portraits, and special events. This earned him enough money to go to a photography technical school. After graduating, Cox took up advertising photography and expanded his business into graphic design, and partnered with a printer to create brochures.
Then, Cox put his skills to good use by volunteering.
“I did all the advertising for events at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art for 15 years and loved being able to donate my skills to an arts organization,” Cox said. “I also ran a non-profit photography program in grade schools showing children the darkroom, and how it was done as the digital era began. My team set up a darkroom and each child got to develop a print of a still life picture they took during the program.”
Cox then became interested in volunteering outside of the arts. It wasn’t long before he saw a commercial for the Red Cross needing volunteers to respond to local needs, like house fires and floods.
“Waking up in the middle of the night is not fun, but the reward for helping people through a disaster is a great feeling,” he said. “One of my first responses was to a large apartment building fire. As a new member I didn’t have the needed experience, so I ended up chasing dogs who fled the fire, put them on leashes, and reunited the pets with their families.”
After a number of other “learning experiences,” Cox became the disaster action team supervisor, providing immediate assistance for residents displaced by home fires.
Cox also responds to large scale disasters like floods and winter storms.
“The Red Cross has an astonishing number of volunteer opportunities,” Cox said. “Blood services is the single biggest service we offer. This takes volunteers for everything from curriers to greeters. The National DAT Deployment is what you see in the news. On the local level we do sheltering, drive trucks and feed entire neighborhoods three weeks at a time. That’s what I do … Local DAT.”
Cox supervises a local DAT team.
“Before COVID that consisted of a supervisor, driver, caseworker, and other support if needed for a large fire,” Cox said. “The team also includes someone to distribute water to firefighters or help find family members at fire scenes. I meet with the fire chief to confirm a client’s name, and if they will be able to go back in their house or need a place to stay. We interview the family and explain how we can help, and we provide cash assistance in the form of electronic funds transfer to their bank account, or a credit card to assist in payments for hotels or clothes. We carry clothes, shoes, diapers, snacks, and comfort kits (toiletries etc.) for each person to help them for immediate care.”
During COVID, Cox explains that they only respond in person to fire involving four or more families. In smaller fires the fire chief relays contact information to Cox. There are also DAT Team members who work online. They call this the watch-floor which has its own leadership and computer input people along with interviewers. Most DAT members work on this system to learn how it works, and then assist clients virtually.
Most recently, there was a challenging situation at a fire.
“Over 20 families needed housing after an apartment building fire,” Cox said. “We needed a Centro bus to get people to somewhere inside and warm as the fire chief sorted things out. The apartment building was deemed unsafe although most apartments were not damaged by fire. But the families could not stay until the electrical systems were inspected and repaired. With COVID we were restricted to three Red Cross responders. It took us six hours from the time of arrival at 2 a.m. until we assisted each family.”
“In Central and Northern New York nearly 700 people volunteer with the Red Cross by responding to home fires and other disasters, providing emergency assistance to military families, supporting blood collections, and much more,” Lisa Smith, executive director of the Central and Northern New York Chapter of the Red Cross, said. “We are grateful for the dedication of our volunteers like Doug Cox whose support makes a compassionate difference for our neighbors in need.”
Cox and his wife, Christina, moved from Cleveland to Manlius so she could accept the position of director of the library at the Upstate Medical Center. Their son, Rob, who worked at the Manlius Library, now works at the library in Cleveland, Ohio.
Besides photography, Cox enjoys art, camping, and auto racing.
“I have a wine cellar and enjoy cooking,” Cox said.
To recommend someone to be featured in this column contact Mel Rubenstein: [email protected].
Doug Cox
