When Deborah Provost, secretary for Research Affairs and IRB at the University of Florida Health Science Center Jacksonville, was driving to work Aug. 31, she heard on the radio that the federal government had dispatched DMAT FL-4, Jacksonville’s firefighter search-and-rescue team, to Mississippi to help Hurricane Katrina victims.
She also heard that DMAT FL-4 found the hurricane survivors not only distraught but hungry – with many having not eaten since Aug. 29. But when she heard that the firefighters gave their own food rations to the hurricane survivors, that’s when Deborah got involved.
The radio station asked listeners to deliver food donations to any Jacksonville fire station by 6 p.m. to be loaded on a truck scheduled to leave Jacksonville at 8 p.m. “As soon as I got to work, I spoke to my supervisor, Teresa Dillinger, who agreed that we should try to do something,” said Deborah. “She suggested that I contact Michelle Cothran in Shands Human Resources so she could get the word out and help get the project going.
“As soon as we sent out the word, the money began to come in and the response was overwhelming!” said Deborah. “I even received e-mails from employees who were parents of the DMAT FL-4 firefighters, and they made requests for certain items and thanked me for letting the employees help.”
Then Deborah contacted the Winn-Dixie warehouse to see if they were interested in donating to the cause. “The warehouse manager, Scott Preston, worked with me to make it happen,” Deborah said. He asked her to go to a local store, get the warehouse code from the items on the shelf and then e-mail him the list. “I went during lunch to the local Winn-Dixie on State Street and ran around the store with the manager to get the warehouse codes and then e-mailed the list to Scott, who then started pulling cases of food from the shelves in the warehouse.
“The next thing I knew, I had money and cases of food to be picked up at the warehouse but needed a larger vehicle to do this,” she said. “Debbie Snipes, secretary in Internal Medicine, jumped in and donated her time and van to go with me to pick up the food.”
By the end of the work day $1,924.38 had been collected to purchase food and supplies for DMAT FL-4. But the UF and Shands Jacksonville team spirit didn’t end there. With just 30 minutes to spare to deliver the donations, Deborah and Debbie were rerouted to another fire station at the last minute.
“As we arrived at the first station, we found their fire truck station had had a minor accident,” said Deborah. “They had flat tires and blocked lanes, and hurt firemen were being rushed to – of course – Shands Jacksonville!” Happily, no one was seriously hurt. The firefighters made it to Shands, and Deborah and Debbie made it to the second station just in time to load up the truck before it headed to DMAT FL-4 in Mississippi.