Editor’s note: Kyra Nead is a senior communications consultant in Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit organization. Since 2006, the organization has led Kaiser Permanente volunteer teams to the Gulf Coast to repair or replace homes and buildings destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. A team has just arrived in Biloxi, Mississippi. We coaxed Nead into sharing her perspectives on the experience — including how it connects to the total health of Gulf Coast residents. Her first post was on Tuesday. Here is her second post of the week.
Earlier this week, 30 of the Kaiser Permanente volunteers working in the Gulf Coast gathered into a meeting room to discuss the day’s work.
Remarkably, the energy was still high after more than 8 hours of intense physical work, as was the scent, since several hadn’t gotten their turn to use the dorm showers.
“On Wednesday the true personalities come out, “ warned Jackie Jones, a Gulf Coast volunteer project leader.
Being the grateful communications tag-along for this trip and not a true “volunteer,” I didn’t attend any of the volunteer orientation sessions. What did I miss? What on earth happens on Wednesday?
“I’ll tell you what happens,” Jones said. “The soreness kicks in. Sleeping in a dorm with 10 other people kicks in. And you’ll see how confident the volunteers have become with their work.”
They guard their rice bowl, she says. They want to finish what they’ve come here to do. If you try and pull them off a project to work on something else, chances are they might just bite.
If it wasn’t for her booming voice and knowing she’s been on this Gulf Coast trip seven times before, I’m not sure I would take her seriously. After all she’s decked out in bright pink camouflage pants (and wasn’t that a pink helmet covered in gemstones I saw her wearing earlier?). Besides, these are truly the kindest people I’ve ever met.
But on Wednesday, I was smart enough to arrive at the work site with a bit of wariness.
The morning started off normal enough: the same jokes about the breakfast or who snored the loudest; the same scramble of finding their work gloves, helmets and bandanas.
I cautiously approached the all-female team I’d been working with. The team is led by the fearless Maritza Castro (a lead optical dispenser, at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California). It didn’t take long before Rochelle Campbell (administrative assistant for a special care clinic at Kaiser Permanente in the Northwest) became more than a little testy when I wanted to borrow “her” screwdriver.
“Now I know what they mean about the personalities coming out, “ Rochelle said. “Because everything is getting on my nerves.”
Replacing the screwdriver with a nail gun, I backed away slowly and moved along.
Janet Stephens (office manager for multimedia at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California) appeared to be soft spoken on day one. While still as nice as ever, she appeared a little possessed measuring slab after slab of sheet rock.
I made my way over to Joshua Drainville (director of document management shared service for Kaiser Permanente in Southern California) and Marc VanRiper (director, labor management partnership for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California). Yesterday, they taught me – someone who is terrified of numbers – how to measure, saw and hammer in a couple window frames (my very first – and darn good, if I do say so myself).
I wondered: Are they intentionally avoiding eye contact with me, so they can finish their project without my getting in the way? Was I starting to get paranoid? Maybe Jackie was right.
Several hours later, I was confident I might make it out alive without my feelings getting too bruised. I heard that some insults were thrown out when equipment was borrowed without asking and tempers flared when the air pressure on power tools weren’t as high as they could be.
Still at the end of the day, there wasn’t a smile missing on anyone’s face, no matter how sore their backs and shoulders, and there was utter awe at seeing a magnificent facility coming to life before all of our eyes.
Luckily, I haven’t heard anything too intimidating about Thursday. Maybe it’s a surprise.
