Since it was our day off, we decided to go visit the Oklahoma City National Museum and Memorial. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked his truck outside the Murrah Federal Building. At precisely 9:01 am, the bomb inside that truck exploded, destroying most of the Murrah Federal building and other buildings in the area. Besides the firefighters and policemen, many people in the community responded as well. When I was reading about all the stories, it was overwhelming for two reasons. First, it was shocking on how disastrous this event was, how recent it still is and how close it is to my home, Dallas. It was extremely surreal, too, since the place we were staying at got hit by the blast. The second reason was the amount of support and volunteering received from the community was insane. The Oklahoma policemen and firefighters received extra men from Arizona, California, Maryland, and many other places. Once they were safely out of the building, survivors helped by making lists of who came into the office that day, tearing off clothing to stop others from bleeding, or even going back into the building to help others out. Then, as emergency rooms quickly prepared for incoming wounded, medical staff rushed to the scene to help out before the injured could be transported. The list of support goes on and on. It was crazy how fast and how many people helped out. At first, seeing all this support and volunteering discouraged me. My work with Alternative Breaks would not amount anywhere close to what these people did 18 years ago. Then, I saw an editorial cartoon about volunteerism. The cartoon shows a line of people shaped into a heart, with the person at the point asking, “What can we do to help?” and arms open wide. That’s my attitude shifted. I recognized that without each individual person in that heart, it wouldn’t be complete. It shows that every volunteer is willing to do something, no matter the size of the task, making me excited for our volunteering to come.
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