R By Lisa Kimble
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B
akersfield resident Carolyn Pandol is in the calm between storms. But the homemaker and mother of two, whose family has dubbed her “storm chaser,� knows she is just a phone call away from another mission of goodwill. It may sound like the plot of a great action adventure, but it is the real life drama of helping disaster victims near and far through the American Red Cross’ Kern Chapter that has given the Kern native and empty-nester renewed purpose. “It is all about helping people,� said Pandol, 52. “You get out of it as much as you give.� Earlier this month, her team deployed to Taft in the wake of a school shooting. Last year, she and her fellow volunteers were hot on the heels of natural disasters that left plenty of collateral damage. The granddaughter of cotton pioneer Wofford B. Camp, this former Kern County “Maid of Cotton� said she never imagined herself sleeping on a cot among strangers, thousands of miles from the comforts of home. Now she can’t fathom doing anything else. With her children off to college, Pandol said she was looking for a way to get involved in the community again. She and her husband, third-generation grape grower Jack Pandol, Jr., had been deeply involved in the capital campaign and establishment of Bakersfield Christian High School, among other philanthropic projects. In the fall of 2011, she said she spotted a meeting notice in the newspaper for prospective volunteers. “It was immediate. I knew that was what I wanted to do,� Pandol said. “It was nothing that I had ever been involved in, nor was I aware how the Red Cross is right here in our community 24/7, — Carolyn Pandol everyday of the year.� In addition to classroom training and online courses, she received a lot of on-the-job instruction. She began as a trainee on the disaster action team. A year ago, she was dispatched to Lindsay where an apartment fire had destroyed a special-needs complex. Her group provided hope in the form of food, clothing, shelter and a plan. Last summer, Pandol and other volunteers were sent to Tampa, Fla., ahead of an erratic Hurricane Isaac. “When the storm veered west, our team flew to Houston. Then we drove to Louisiana to open a shelter for two weeks,� she said of what she called the “great adventure� of deployment, and the chance to see other parts of the country. But it would be another storm, Sandy, that strengthened her resolve and commitment to the Red Cross. She was one of nine local volunteers deployed in early November, first to man a shelter on Long Island before moving to a two-story community college gymnasium in Garden City, N.J. At the height of her relief work, there were 900 “clients,� Pandol said. Volunteers stayed in another shelter nearby, taking 12 hours shifts. Eventually, exhaustion set in as everyone’s good intentions collided. Most people were gracious and appreciative. But some
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Like the John Wooden quote, ‘You haven’t truly lived until you have helped someone who can never repay you.’ These are people I will never see again.
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