Rescue Worker Makes Needy Her Priority

From the time she was paged on Jan. 2, Cathe Daly had less than a day to pack her jeans, rain gear and Red Cross T-shirts, and hop on a plane to Sacramento.

As the team leader for Rapid Response Corps of the American Red Cross Los Angeles Chapter, Daly was called to coordinate the delivery of meals to flood victims in Modesto for the next three weeks. Storms and melting snow caused rivers to overflow and ravage much of Northern California.

“You could tell everything had been pulled out from underneath them,” Daly said of the victims. Many of their homes were merely rooftops sticking out from the flood waters, she said.

As a corps team leader, Daly, 22, of Saugus, is on a full-time, 11-month volunteering commitment based in the Red Cross office in Van Nuys. Most of the time she teaches classes and also works on projects for Habitat for Humanity--part of the team building for the Rapid Response crew --and helps victims of local disasters such as house fires.

In the flood area, relief work often meant 15-hour days--7 a.m. to 10 p.m.--getting wet and muddy.

But the hours and the mud were worth it because of the victims’ response, she said. There was a Modesto man, for example, who said, “Thank you so much,” to one of Daly’s relief crews the day before they left. After three weeks, his face had become a familiar one.

As he said goodbye, he handed them a picture of himself, a simple way to say they would have a friend there.

The Red Cross is “the only way of life I know,” Daly said.

Her parents, Joseph and Sharon Daly, are Red Cross volunteers who raised her to believe in a life of service to others and encouraged involvement in Scouting and other community groups, she said. Her brother Michael was one of the Red Cross volunteers who responded to the San Francisco Bay Area earthquake in 1989.

Daly, a graduate of Cal Lutheran University, practically grew up in the Red Cross office in Santa Clarita. “The Red Cross was a second home,” she said.

She worked as a volunteer for 12 years herself and joined the Rapid Response team through the federal AmeriCorps program in September.

She wears a pager so she can be called to the scene of house fires around the Valley, assisting victims by getting them food, clothing and shelter.

“If we’re called by the Fire Department, we try to be there within an hour,” Daly said. “If we could have an ideal situation, we would be there before the Fire Department leaves. We don’t like the idea of someone being left out on the sidewalk not knowing what they are going to do.”

Daly understands what it’s like to be a fire victim. Although she was away from home at the time, a garage fire at her parents’ home destroyed part of the house nearly five years ago. “It was strange to walk into the house and find even the carpet pulled up and the black charring on the walls,” she said. No one was hurt, but “it reminded me of how fragile life can be.”

It also underscores the importance of the work for her.

“She’s very dedicated,” said Tim Dwyer, program coordinator for the Rapid Response Corps, who added that Daly leads by example, pitching in to help her team members as needed. “She will definitely get out on the line for them. That’s what I try to get all my leaders to do.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please send suggestions on prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to valley@latimes.com