By Rick Padden, American Red Cross Public Affairs
Name: Bill & Judy Howell
Location: Estes Park
GAP: You name it
Length of service: 7 years
Deployments: 17
If there’s one thing Red Cross volunteers Bill and Judy Howell of Estes Park know how to do well, it’s talk to people. The Howells both had long law enforcement careers in Los Angeles County — Bill partly as a Sheriff’s department homicide detective and Judy in narcotics patrol and administration, and partly as an undercover narcotics investigator – before retiring to Colorado in 2003. Bill also provided security around nuclear weapons sites earlier in his 4 years in the Air Force
“You learn how to talk to people, or you end up getting hurt,” Bill said.
The couple met while working on the same series of organized crime cases in California, which lasted 7 years and involved 17,000 victims of loan-sharking, gambling, prostitution, etc.. They decided to join forces more personally, marrying in 1998.
It’s not surprising, given their backgrounds, that the two were ready for just about anything when they began volunteering for the Red Cross 7 years ago, and they’ve done just that – nearly everything. They’ve trained for ERV driving, sheltering, disaster action team, feeding, government operations, external relations, logistics, disaster assessment, mass care, community liaison work, information and planning, and life, safety and asset protection.
In Red Cross-speak, that would be ERV, SH SV, DAT SA, FF SV, GO SV, ER SV, LOG, DA SA, MC SV, LCR, IP SA, and LSAP SV (with SV meaning supervisory level, and SA meaning service associate).
About the only things they haven’t involved themselves in are mental health services and spiritual counseling.
They’d been training to be hospice volunteers when the 2013 floods hit northern Colorado (the day they were to graduate the program), and had offered their help at that time, but weren’t vetted yet in any capacity in the community. But a friend later encouraged them to explore the Red Cross and “here we are, 7 years later,” Bill said. “We’re a twofer. I tell them when they call that neither one of us goes without the other.”
And they’ll go anywhere, whenever needed.
And they’ll go anywhere, whenever needed. They’ve had 17 deployments in the past three years – to Hawaii, California, Wyoming, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and in Colorado – and have worked on just about everything except a tornado and an earthquake.
Deployed to Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the Howells drove an ERV from Colorado to Houston, TX, believing they’d play a fairly narrow, focused role. “We got there the day of the hurricane,” Bill said, “and they asked us if we could take charge of feeding.” Little did they know at the time that the job would mean feeding around 17,000 clients, 800 support people and all the other ERV drivers at the George Brown Convention Center and two other shelters for eleven days – a total of 338,000 meals.
“We’ve slept in client shelters, staff shelters, nice hotels and some not so nice hotels,” Judy said. “I like the fact that we can go to so many different locations, and meet so many people.” When she and Bill first started doing Red Cross work in Estes Park, they encountered loose ends and a bit of confusion about partnerships. As community liaison, Judy knew she had work to do. “I started introducing myself around in person,” she said. “I told them ‘we can make a deal.’”
A “deal” in non-profit terms usually results in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), or basically an agreement between partners about who does what when given situations arise – like the fires, floods and other disasters the Red Cross regularly responds to. That’s also where Judy’s government operations role came in, as several Red Cross partners are government agencies. Jason Godinez, former Red Cross Disaster Program Manager for the northern Colorado branch, recognized that the Howells had valuable experience dealing with municipalities and bureaucracies (can you say, L.A?), so he invited them to work, organizing preparedness, and they accepted.
Pre-disaster ground work quickly became a large part of the “Howell Team” role – working with organizations and groups like: the Town of Estes Park, the Salvation Army, Crossroads Ministry, Salud Family Health Centers, churches, hotels, motels, restaurants, animal clinics, the school district, the American Legion, county emergency management, ham radio operators (Bill’s particular focus) the local police and fire departments, and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through the county.
It’s not always been smooth sailing.
“Disaster supervisors in different locations everywhere have completely different ideas on how to do things,” Judy said. Bill in particular has become known as somewhat opinionated on occasion, speaking his mind freely to Red Cross supervisors when things don’t appear to be moving along as quickly or efficiently as he’d like. “A lot of supervisors above me may think I’m a bit of a pain in the butt,” he said, “but we’re ultimately client advocates and need to get things done for them. What are they gonna do, fire me?”
Their current challenge involves Red Cross guidelines for “non-congregate” sheltering during the pandemic, or social distancing sheltering, and setting up arrangements with the Estes Park lodging community for emergency sheltering in individual spaces. As any Red Crosser knows, every deployment is different. The Howells have been asked on occasion to troubleshoot problems in various shelters, as they are known to know how to address difficult situations – and difficult people. Working in an ERV in North Carolina, feeding people near a mom ‘n pop store, the Howells began to notice why the Red Cross was having trouble keeping ERV drivers stationed in the area: gang activity.
“Both of us had seen drug deals,” Bill said, “major drug deals going on. People pulling up; trunks opening; guns; money; kilos exchanging hands. At one point, everybody was armed but us. “Because we were taking care of them, the leaders were coming up to us and saying, ‘don’t worry, we have your backs’, but rival gangs were coming up asking for different things, extra water, etc. “We were simply treating everyone with a degree of respect, and they left us alone.” The other ERV drivers would only spend one day there and not return, he said. But the Howells were able to establish a sort of understanding with the gang leaders during their deployment.
“I used to bust dope dealers,” she said, “and I’m looking out from the ERV window watching big money deals go down – probably heroin – and I’m thinking I could go back to work and get all my usual busts in just one night! But Bill and I know how to talk to people, and won’t treat anybody any differently, no matter who they are, so we didn’t have any problems.” Neutrality is key to the Red Cross mission, and the Howells understand its importance in retaining the public’s confidence. The Red Cross doesn’t take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.
Judy said their L.A. law-enforcement backgrounds helped.
Asked if they were conflicted about reporting the drug dealing or not, Judy said, “The police there know what’s going on. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a shelter in Gonzales that’s got three different gangs represented, or with a bunch of mom ‘n pops or a bunch of old folks – we take care of whoever’s there.” Chuckling, she added, “we just don’t let them get away with stuff. If gangsters are going to want to run our shelters, we just aren’t going to let them do it. “I think what the whole thing boils down to is, because of all our experience, and all the different people we’ve dealt with over the years, you know, it’s just a matter of talking to people. People will react well when treated with respect.”
Even drug dealers get a bye when they need emergency help.
Asked if they were conflicted about reporting the drug dealing or not, Judy said, “The police there know what’s going on. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a shelter in Gonzales that’s got three different gangs represented, or with a bunch of mom ‘n pops or a bunch of old folks – we take care of whoever’s there.” Chuckling, she added, “we just don’t let them get away with stuff. If gangsters are going to want to run our shelters, we just aren’t going to let them do it. “I think what the whole thing boils down to is, because of all our experience, and all the different people we’ve dealt with over the years, you know, it’s just a matter of talking to people. People will react well when treated with respect.”
The Howells have also continued to do their hospice work (with the Wyoming VA hospital), especially enjoying the monthly ice cream socials that they help put on.