Team Rubicon

[Gusington]

Greetings all. After ten years my time with the State Guard has come to an unceremonious end with the dissolution of my unit.

Over the summer, I worked some weekends with Samaritans Purse, a charity that helped with flood rehab and reconstruction in my local area...the damage was very bad and we are still rebuilding the shared driveway of my and my neighbor's house. 

I participated along with members of the local cleanup group I founded in January of this year, along with my family...we loved it and found it very worth while.

So, I am looking at becoming a member of Team Rubicon...a national and international relief organization that does similar post-disaster work. Here is a link:

https://teamrubiconusa.org/how-to-get-involved/volunteer-with-us/

Anyone here have any first hand experience or an opinion either way on them?

Thanks all.

[Tripoli]

I'm a member of Team Rubicon, but haven't done much with them for the past couple of years

[Gusington]

^Nice, I didn't know that. What have you done in the past? Do you recommend it?

[Tripoli]

I worked with them during the early stages of the Covid lock down, packaging stuff together for distribution for families in need.  It was mostly warehouse work.  I've never deployed with them for a disaster recovery effort, although they seem to do a lot of them.  That isn't because I haven't wanted to, but life has recently got in the way.  I enjoyed working with them, and the military connection was nice.  One thing I miss by being retired is the camaraderie I had working in the military and as part of the LE community.  Being full of ex-military, Team Rubicon helped with that.  I would check them out.  One thought: If you are thinking about going with them, now is the time to sign up and do whatever training you need, as the deployments tend to happen beginning during the spring disaster season.  FWIW, also consider the Red Cross.  I have deployed with them for disasters.  While I didn't get the camaraderie as much as I would have liked, it wasn't bad, and they are a large organization with a lot of roles to fill during disasters.  Some of the roles are challenging, but are a nice change of pace from the typical 9-5 job.  For instance, I was part of a team of 10 workers that had 4 hours to set up a shelter for between 200-1000 evacuees (we didn't have the exact number) from a hurricane.  That kind of challenge is kind of fun to have to meet. 

[Gusington]

Thanks Tripoli. My sister was a member of the Red Cross for many years and...well...I'll say she had a different experience from what you describe above 

[Sir Slash]

Never heard of Team Rubicon but Samaritans Purse is first rate enough. They were true Godsends after Hurricane Ian. Also the only organization I've ever contributed to that never asked me for a penny afterward. I'll now consider Team Rubicon as a worthy place to throw a few extra bucks when I have some. 

[Gusington]

Samaritans Purse is definitely on the faith based side - they gave my family and co workers bibles when we were done working and started each work day with a prayer circle - but we didn't mind.

They also didn't know we were Jewish 

[W8taminute]

^Ok that's twice in one week I busted out laughing after reading one of your posts. 

I've had a few faith and cultural discussions with Jewish co-workers in past places of employment and all of them have always been cordial and enjoyable.

Try sharing your faith, whatever faith you may believe in, with a believer in Islam.  That's a whole different challenge in itself. 

But back on topic.  I think you should go for it and give Team Rubicon a try.  Sounds like you have an itch to be a useful society member. 

I have a question.  Is doing something like this going to take away from one's day job?  I wouldn't mind trying to help others but I can't afford to take time off from work these days.

[Tripoli]

...

I have a question.  Is doing something like this going to take away from one's day job?  I wouldn't mind trying to help others but I can't afford to take time off from work these days.

Depends.  If you deploy outside your area (generally 500 miles) to a natural disaster, the Red Cross wants a 2 week commitment. However, you can do disaster recovery in your area for just 1 day.  Also, the RC has "Disaster Assistance Teams" that deploy for local events like apartment fires to provide immediate aid.  That basically involves having a "Duty Day" or "Duty Night" where you are on call for stuff in your immediate (30 miles or so) area.  Because I haven't deployed with Team Rubicon, I don't know how they work in that regard.
 
Gus-I understand your sister's opinion of the Red Cross. They are a large organization, and there is some incompetence/mismanagement/general organizational friction associated with large organizations.  However, serving on a disasters with them can be fun, interesting and very useful.  I'm just not much for the experience between disasters.  I'm not active with them now (although I'm not on bad terms with them either) for some reasons unrelated to their disaster assistance program.  I might go back to them at some time, but for now I'm sitting on the sidelines. 

[Gusington]

^I hear you. My sister is not the easiest person to get along with either. Once I retire, I will look to do this kind of work full time. I think it keeps the body moving and healthy and is good for mental health too. It minimizes the 'what can I do' feelings in light of horrible events.

W8 - I do volunteer work with my own local group on Sundays every week, for just a few hours. I can be grueling, sweaty, filthy work but seeing the village, town and environs around me just look physically better makes me and my team feel better.

Same with larger volunteer groups like Samaritans Purse, Team Rubicon or the Red Cross, just on a larger scale.

To fill the Guard void, I am also looking into becoming a volunteer firefighter on top of part timing with Rubicon, etc...but The Wife is not so excited about that and thinks I am too old.

We'll see.

[Tripoli]

....

W8 - I do volunteer work with my own local group on Sundays every week, for just a few hours. I can be grueling, sweaty, filthy work but seeing the village, town and environs around me just look physically better makes me and my team feel better.

Same with larger volunteer groups like Samaritans Purse, Team Rubicon or the Red Cross, just on a larger scale.

To fill the Guard void, I am also looking into becoming a volunteer firefighter on top of part timing with Rubicon, etc...but The Wife is not so excited about that and thinks I am too old.

We'll see.

FWIW, my "old guy advice" is keep active, and continue to do "cool things" (whether it be disaster assistance, firefighting or whatever) as long as you can.  It keeps you young.

[Gusington]

  I plan on it!

[GDS_Starfury]

you're a good man Charlie Brown.

if I were to ever get involved with something like this I'd probably go the World Central Kitchen route.

[Gusington]

Thanks Star

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I had planned do so some overseas volunteer work with a group called Operators Without Borders, but COVID hit and that got shut down.  They asked me if I'd be willing to do some stuff from home.  I agreed but I quickly got disillusioned as there were far too many Zoom meetings where people were more interested in wasting time talking about pronouns and land acknowledgements than doing any meaningful work, so I dropped out. 

They're back up and running and doing relief work in various spots around the globe if you're interested.

https://operatorswithoutborders.org/

When I lived in Japan, I found a website that was looking for volunteers for scientific projects around the world.  I volunteered to go on a dinosaur fossil dig in Yunan, China twice.  Sadly, we got rained out both years so we didn't get any work done, but it was still interesting.  I can't find the link to the site that I used but I did stumble across this one while searching for it.

The Smithsonian is looking for volunteers for various projects in the US.

https://www.si.edu/volunteer/citizenscience