Give a little bit

By Candace Doyle

Gary Oien, president of GO/A Architects Inc. in Madison, recently received an award he has every right to be proud of.

No, it's not a Top Projects of 2003 award — although as you've seen in preceding pages, that's quite the to-do.

Oien was honored for something that had nothing to do with architecture or construction in any way, shape or form; he was honored by the American Red Cross for giving 3,000 hours of his time to the Badger Chapter's Disaster Action Team.

As the former director of public affairs for the Greater Milwaukee Chapter, I'm quite familiar with what the DAT does — and it's not always glamorous.

Team members are given helmets, Red Cross jackets, fire boots and pagers. They're on call from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. — usually for a week each month — to respond to local disasters, most often house fires, offering food, clothing and shelter to the displaced.

"For the DAT, 90 percent or more are fires," said Oien, who's been volunteering for the Madison area chapter for six or seven years. "It's usually a 2:30 in the morning call, trust me."

Yet as a DAT member, Oien said he's also had to respond to local disasters that, because of their scope, are clas-sified as national, such as a 40-unit apartment fire in Madison and a chemical spill that occurred years ago in Verona.

"We'd set up shelters and feeding lines," he said.

Oien said he volunteers his time because it's part of who he is.

"I'm a Rotarian, so I believe in volunteering," he said.

He chose the Red Cross because of its heavy reliance on volunteers — it's the largest volunteer organization in the world — and because it doesn't rely on government funding, what Oien calls "the politics of it."

And he chose the DAT because he wanted to do more than write a check.

"That's one of the areas I could get involved in at the local level and get my hands dirty," he said of the DAT. "I prefer to do the hands-on work and get calls once in a while."

Yet it's his heart that gets the real workout.

"Once you get to the fire, and people are there in a panic without any other support, once they realize people are there who can shelter them and give them a blanket, they just break down and melt," he said. "They feel like they're all alone, but they're not. I'll always be active in the Red Cross."

And we'll always be grateful.

Candace Doyle is the editor of The Daily Reporter newspaper.