Volunteers don't take 'no' for an answer

When devoted volunteers know in their hearts that they are needed, they don’t take “no” for an answer when offering their help – especially when it means assisting people in obtaining basic survival supplies, like food, after a fire.

As the county-organized Fallbrook Local Assistance Center began setting up to help victims of the Fallbrook (Rice Canyon) Fire, for applicants, the perplexity of working through the myriad paperwork proved greater than anticipated.

As often happens with a first-time event, there were challenges along the way. While many fire victims were prepared to deal with circumstances involving insurance, replacement of lost belongings and personal documents, others were less fortunate, says Leticia Maldonado-Stamos, a teacher at Live Oak School who volunteered to help at the center.

“A vast number of people didn’t know what to do, where to go or whom to ask,” she said.

Stamos credits local volunteers for helping the process move smoothly. Hundreds and hundreds of people came for food stamps from as far away as Pala, Pauma Valley and Valley Center, because the Fallbrook Assistance Center is the closest, Stamos said.

Most of these people had never requested food stamps before, Stamos said, so the process was confusing to them. These are people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and while out of their homes had to pay hundreds of dollars for hotels and restaurant meals, totally depleting their reserves.

All of them were low-income people, Stamos said; plus, many were out of work because of the fires and had no wages coming in.

On top of the trauma of losing their homes, and perhaps viewing the experience of having to ask for aid as humiliating, many people didn’t understand the forms required for assistance and needed help.

Stamos said that even with her college degree, she had to read the forms carefully to understand what was expected for answers. For example, one of the words used, “enumerate” – meaning “list” – is a word people with limited education may not understand.

Moreover, many people needing assistance could neither read nor write. Stamos helped a disabled person whose hands were affected, a stroke victim who arrived with a friend who knew little about the person and many non-English-speakers who required translation assistance to determine their answers.

“I know there was a woman disqualified because she didn’t fill out the form correctly,” Stamos said.

In this case, the question dealt with the applicant’s earnings and could have been interpreted several ways. No one explained the information to her since the county eligibility interview was private, and early on, Stamos said, no Spanish-speaking eligibility workers appeared to be on-site.

As of November 6, people who had turned in their eligibility forms three days earlier were still waiting to be seen.

While representatives of various organizations and government groups were doing their jobs, organizers told Stamos they didn’t need volunteers, but this did not deter her and others. Even though she said they were turned away at first, Stamos believes local volunteers became a vital link between the fire victims and the organizations there to help them.

“When I arrived Friday, immediately after being allowed to return, I went straight to volunteer,” she said. “I could already hear the tension and stress in people’s voices.”

It was then that people in charge told her they didn’t need extra help. She went home, but Sunday morning, after getting phone calls from others saying they were desperate for help, she returned, along with other local volunteers.

Coming to the rescue were students from California State University San Marcos, members of a church and a wide variety of other people who learned of the need through networking their phones and e-mail.

Even a representative from Senator Diane Feinstein’s office assisted. When he arrived and recognized what was happening, he sat down and began to help.

Further, Stamos said, when she learned the center needed help with childcare on Sunday, she spotted former students in line with their parents and asked them to help with the kids.

As late as October 31, while aid workers were still turning away volunteers, they kept coming back.

Leticia Maldonado-Stamos is an 11-year resident of Fallbrook. A resource teacher who deals in reading intervention, she has been at Live Oak School for six years.