By Keely Grasser
Leo Yull is the kind of man who would give the shirt of his back — or even the shoes off his feet.
The long-time Red Cross volunteer was once helping victims at a house fire on Somerset Street West. One victim wanted to return to the smouldering building to retrieve his belongings, but firemen wouldn’t let him in because he was barefoot.
“So Leo sat down on the lawn,” says Alistair Hensler, disaster services co-ordinator at the organization’s Ottawa branch. “And gave the man his shoes.”
“That’s just the kind of person Leo is,” he says while Yull is out of the room, because he says he would never mention the story himself.
Yull, a gray-haired man with warm eyes, is retired after a 35-year career with the armed forces. He speaks about his accomplishments in a matter-of-fact way. It’s easy to see why he didn’t mention the story about his shoes.
He’s volunteered for the Ottawa branch of the Canadian Red Cross for about five years and helps out at their Catherine Street office almost every day.
He’s the type of person who likes to keep busy. After retiring, “I needed to have something to do besides odd jobs around the house,” he says.
His work at the Red Cross isn’t a just simple way to pass time. A small pager attached to his belt is a reminder of how important his work can become.
Yull is a leader of one of the branch’s disaster response teams. They work in partnership with the Salvation Army to help Ottawa residents when they fall victim to personal catastrophes like house fires or severe flooding.
When his pager goes off, Yull assembles a team of volunteers and they drive to the site in one of the branch’s red and white vans. They are quick to respond, says Yull, and sometimes the police and fire department are still there. But as the flames are put out and the fire trucks pull away, his team’s work is just beginning.
“(The fire department) puts out fires,” he explains. “They don’t take care of the crying babies, the expectant mothers, the seniors in their pajamas. That’s what we do.”
Too often, Yull explains, the team finds itself responding to calls in the middle of the night. Nothing’s open and the victims often don’t even have the necessities.
The team ensures they get food. They often find accommodation for them, and even if they stay with family and friends, the organization “makes sure they have enough fresh towels and food,” says Yull.
The need for aid is great, he says, because victims of these kinds of disasters are often in the low income bracket.
Overall, Yull says softly, he tries to offer them comfort. There’s physical comfort like diapers and toothbrushes, but also “talking quietly and reassuringly to them.”
After he and his team ensure the victims are comfortable, the job is turned over to other volunteers. The next day the branch helps with administrative matters, like contacting their insurance companies.
Being a team response leader is not always easy. Yull recalls responding to a particularly terrible blaze.
He describes the scene as chaotic, with emergency vehicles, fire, smoke and people everywhere. He says he was devastated to learn two children died in the deliberately-set fire. That’s when the job can get emotional, he says.
But he says it’s important not to let his feelings interfere. “You want to rise above that and not let your personal feelings complicate someone else’s when it’s already complicated enough.”
In the end, Yull says his job is rewarding and heart-warming.
No one will testify to the benefits of the emergency response team’s efforts more than Amanda (who doesn’t want her last name revealed). Her house burned down on Dec. 30.
The Red Cross gave her vouchers for food and clothing, and put her family up in a hotel for a few days until Amanda found accommodations.
“If it wasn’t for them, I’d probably be on the streets with my three children,” she says.
Yull says his clients give plenty of thanks, adding most say they didn’t realize that the Red Cross offers aid locally.
It’s a common misconception, says Hensler. Most people know the Red Cross helps out in international disasters like the earthquake in Pakistan or Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Fewer realize the organization also helps out in Canada during situations like the Swiss Air crash, the 1998 ice storm, and the 2003 black out.
Yull’s main duties are helping out locally, but he has also gone abroad to offer aid during major disasters.
He was one of many Canadian Red Cross workers that travelled to the New York area after Sept. 11, 2001, to help with relief efforts.
He was on vacation in the Dominican Republic with his family when the tsunami hit Asia on Boxing Day 2004. Soon after he returned to Ottawa, the Red Cross called and wanted him to accompany donated medicine to Sri Lanka.
“Twelve hours later I was at the Ottawa airport,” he says. He arrived at the chaotic Sri Lankan airport, which was bustling with arriving volunteers and supplies.
He dropped off the medicine and returned home. The flight was about 30 hours each way.
Yull’s no stranger to world travel. His family lived in Germany while he was stationed there as a part of NATO forces.
He also served in Egypt, without his family, as a UN peacekeeper.
He worked in logistics, so his experience has come in handy during his work with the Red Cross.
Helping people has been a theme through his military career and his volunteer work at the Red Cross. Yull shrugs it off like it’s nothing special.
“It’s a basic need to help people,” he says. “You see it when a car goes into a river and three people jump in to save someone.” He believes it’s just instinct to want to help neighbours.
It goes beyond simple compassion, says Hendler, saying Yull has always been ready and available. “That’s quite a commitment.”
Yull downplays this. “I’m a very, very fortunate person,’ he says. “I just wanted to give something back.”
“I think it’s a great organization and I’m happy to be associated with it,” he says proudly. “I feel good being a very small cog on a great many wheels within it.”