Today started off at 8 am with breakfast and a ride over to the Red Cross chapter in Albany. Once I got there I got in contact with HS at DR headquarters in Syracuse and got directions to come there. They were planning to move headquarters to Utica (about halfway between Syracuse and Albany) in the early afternoon and they wanted me to come there to help with the move. So after that I went back to the Albany airport, got a car, and started the 2 hour drive to Syracuse. Just before I passed through Utica, I got a call from HQ letting me know to just go straight to the new HQ in Utica. Happy that my travel time had been cut in half, I headed to Utica.
The new HQ is in the old Utica welcome center, right in downtown. It is a good sized building, with plenty of room for this relatively small operation. Once I go there I waited for everyone from Syracuse to arrive. Once they got there it was straight to work. I spent most of my time getting acquainted with the current state of the DR, discussing shelters, bulk distribution sites, and assignments for our HS personnel with the Manager, Sam, and the soon-to-be outgoing supervisor, Leanna. In addition to that I spent a good deal of time getting paperwork in order, requesting supplies, checking medical equipment, and other assorted tasks. Everything went well and it was a good time getting everything squared away for my time here. My last task of the day was getting together a resource list that I can send out with our HS field personnel tomorrow. A HS resource list has lots of information on general resources in addition to medical-related ones, as most requests for help involve non-medical needs and it is easiest to be able to answer them directly instead of sending them from place-to-place for help. If I have learned anything from my last 3 DRs it is that a comprehensive resource list is a fieldworker's best friend.
After work I grabbed a bite to eat, got checked into the hotel (quite fortunately only 1 block from HQ), and finished up work on the resource list. I look forward to my first full day of work tomorrow and the chance to dive into the DR that it brings.
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