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In mid-September, while people everywhere were trying to
make sense of insanity in the enormous death and
destruction wreaked by terrorists against Americans and
citizens of the world, McKenzie resident Cindy Summers
was preparing to act. By month's end, she had assumed a
position of leadership on a battlefront, lending her
skills and knowledge to help Americans survive the
onslaught, to heal with strength and dignity.
The battlefront confronted by Cindy and other Red Cross
volunteers was one of ministering to the hearts and
souls of Americans, for the attacks that occurred on
September 11, while killing upwards of 5,000
individuals, wounded millions as they absorbed the
horror of the moment and the uncertainty of the days to
come.
Fresh-faced and beautiful, Cindy's countenance reflects
the extremes of joy and sorrow, and she seems to embrace
them both as tools toward finding the greater good and
appreciating the basic goodness in the gift of life. Her
indomitable spirit and love for mankind shine as clearly
as a beacon in the dark of night, a light she seeks to
pass on as she makes her way through life serving
others.
She shares a kindred spirit with American Red Cross
founder, Clara Barton, who would likely bow in homage to
the volunteers who have followed in her footsteps. In
1870-71, Clara Barton embarked on an independent mission
to provide relief to devastated civilians during the
Franco-Prussian War after the European Red Cross refused
her offer of assistance on the foregrounds of the
battlefields where women were not allowed. Nearly two
decades earlier, she had served diligently the soldiers
of the Civil War until its end in 1865. In May 1881, she
founded the American Red Cross to ease the misery of
both war and peacetime disaster. Today, the American Red
Cross remains dedicated to ease the suffering of
humanity while "striving to promote mutual
understanding, friendship, cooperation, and lasting
peace amongst all peoples."
Cindy was set on her path of service by her mother,
Russelline Hilliard Summers, who transported
then-teenaged Cindy to the Huntingdon hospital where she
wore the pinafore and cap of a Junior Red Cross
volunteer candy striper, tending to the needs of the
sick in the county as well as the elderly, volunteering
also in nursing homes.
Adding insight to her early dedication, Cindy says, "My
wonderful mother shared that we are here for a reason
and we need to live our lives in search of that and try
to fulfill our purpose in an honorable way."
Cindy began her service with the Junior Red Cross in
1965, stuffing drawstring "ditty bags" sewn by home
economics students with toiletries that were sent to
soldiers serving in Vietnam, a mission that was
accomplished under the direction of Miss Lou Owens of
Huntingdon, who Cindy remembers with affection. Websites
throughout the Internet proclaim the appreciation of the
servicemen who received the ditty bags.
Over the years, Cindy's name remained on the roster of
active volunteers, her resume of skills updated to
reflect her status as a certified master social worker.
On September 11, 36 years into her service as a Red
Cross volunteer, Cindy received her first phone call
from the organization; a request to stand-by.
Knowing that a second call could come as quickly as two
hours from the initial alert, Cindy was prepared to
serve, but with volunteers gleaned from among those
nearer the disaster, a second call didn't come.
She received another stand-by call on September 24. This
time, a subsequent call directed her to the National Red
Cross headquarters in Washington D.C., where she arrived
two days later for an "as-yet unknown assignment."
"I had no idea what I was going to be doing," says
Cindy, who was the first volunteer to arrive in what
turned out to be the launching of a 24-hour, nationwide
information hotline in the wake of the terrorists'
attacks.
The volunteers set up shop from scratch in an abandoned,
ransacked industrial building, with twelve computers and
telephones installed on the first day by qualified Red
Cross volunteers.
Cindy explained that volunteers with "incredible skills"
were garnered from all walks of life, with electrical
engineers providing the wiring expertise, educators
training new people, and those with experience in how to
get services to people working to let the American
public know a resource for help was at their fingertips,
as near as their telephone.
"It was an awesome experience to be part of it," says
Cindy, who likened the hotline's growth to a mushroom
that grew shift-by-shift and day-by-day to include
around 300 stations by the time she returned to
Tennessee two weeks later on October 11. Since then, 100
more stations have been added.
Intended not only as a supportive, compassionate
informational network, the hotline - which remains in
service - also offers instant grief counseling. This is
the division in which Cindy was slated as a mental
health professional.
Cindy operated as the supervisor of the night shift, a
time she chose to serve because of her awareness that
nighttime is when fear, despair and uncertainty "come
alive".
"We had access to information about the victims and were
able to calm people and give them information so they
could make better decisions," Cindy says.
With the airline hotlines routed directly to the Red
Cross center, calls from flight attendants reflected a
paradox of fear and dedication in their desire to
continue doing their jobs and help the public. Their
intimate knowledge of the duties performed by their
fallen comrades made more real for them the images that
every American imagined: routine tasks aborted by
soulless usurpers on a mission of evil, with death their
goal.
As each shift neared its end, volunteers arrived early
to be briefed on events that took place on the previous
shift. Workers who were leaving for the day remained to
be debriefed of the same events in order to minimize the
impact of handling the emotional phone calls, another
function that was performed by the mental health
volunteers.
"The nature of the work was focused and involved," Cindy
expressed strongly, "People were bearing their souls in
their questions and concerns, and just hearing their
stories was emotionally involving."
Likening the psychological trauma of working the hotline
to post-traumatic syndrome, she explained that long term
psychological problems are not as prevalent or as
evident in people who receive debriefing as compared
with those who are not debriefed.
"It's the same concept as when there are disasters in
the schools," she explained, or the trauma endured by
servicemen during time of war.
Sleep was rare for Cindy: "I went there to work and I
did - I slept about three hours out of 24 - I was so
keyed up I couldn't sleep." She recalls.
She ventured from the hotel on two occasions during her
visit to the nation's capital. Having visited Washington
in prior years, she was familiar with the bustling
crowds of people and cars in the city that is a business
and political arena as well as a major tourist
attraction.
"It was a ghost town," Cindy declared in a stage
whisper. "It was the strangest feeling, knowing that
something so (monumental) had happened that affected the
lives of Americans."
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Cindy displays
memorabilia from her early years as a Junior Red Cross
volunteer candy striper, as well as items from her
recent tour of duty with the Red Cross in Washington,
D.C., where she helped build a nation-wide hotline to
provide both information and compassionate support to
Americans following the terrorist attacks of September
11.Adding to the changed landscape of the
capital was a "high military and police presence and
helicopters flying everywhere." Cindy related, "I didn't
feel unsafe or frightened - and I traveled the subway
alone - but to know it had affected my country like it
did was a new feeling for me, and I think it is for many
Americans. I'm so glad we haven't remained in that mode;
we're trying to get back to normal. People adjusting,
reaching out and asking why and how this happened - that
was the nature of the calls coming into the hotline."
Due to the intensity of the work performed by the mental
health volunteers, their tour of duty at the site is
limited to two weeks of service. Cindy returned home
with great appreciation for the selfless work of the Red
Cross and with a deep sense of pride in having been a
part of the effort, as well as a broader view of the
events that transpired on September 11.
Having been tempered by the fire of her experiences in
Washington didn't prepare her for what she encountered
on the way home, however. She had tolerated with some
relief the presence of National Guardsmen in the hotel
in Washington, as well as the increased police and
military presence in the Dulles and Atlanta airports. It
was in Nashville that she realized the immensity of the
situation that confronts America.
"There were the armed soldiers in Nashville, Tennessee,"
she declared in an awed, stricken voice, "and it was
very emotional - the magnificence - and not in a good
way - of what had happened to our country and how close
it got and how it affects all Americans - it was an
aweing experience, the whole thing."
The fear of the unknown is the sentiment most prevalent
in Cindy's mind, she says, "because it is something
we've never experienced. What's going to happen next and
where it's going to happen is a new feeling. I see it
here in the students, kids share things with me."
Cindy is an instructor of human services at Bethel
College in McKenzie, a job she takes as seriously as
raising her own children.
"I feel very honored here," she says, "I put a lot of
energy into my students, just as I did my children. I
just pray they go forth and make the world a better
place and I think they will."
Cindy spoke of how the war has changed Americans,
bringing families closer, and "talking about things of
substance as individuals," she says.
"Not that we never did," she continues, "But it has
changed us. We should be more grateful, more courteous,
more loving, more appreciative of life itself."
She pauses, then shares a secret she passes on to both
her children and students: "Within every problem lies a
gift - learn to look for the gift."
Cindy defines other gifts received along with the
disaster as things like "pulling together as a strong
country, and people reaching down within themselves" to
give not only monetary support but to lend also their
talents, skills, and wisdom.
"Those are good things, good ways for mankind to be,"
Cindy concluded.
As accomplished in life as she is - having taught
science in Nashville's inner-city schools as well as Big
Sandy; worked in programs dealing with drug and alcohol
abuse; been a mediator for the court system; worked with
traumatized veterans and with domestic violence issues;
hosted the TV show "City Hall and You", been the
publisher of a shopper guide; managed three successful
city-level political campaigns; been president of the
PTA and creator of a model after-school program in
Nashville - she defines her most important role as
mother to her three children.
"I've basically been a mama," she says modestly, "I put
lots of focus on them; I'm really proud of all three of
them."
Cindy's youngest daughter, Rachel Anne Williams, is a
freshman at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
where she is studying engineering, is an honors student
and a photographic model.
Son, Davy Connell, is a construction engineer living in
San Bernardino, California, where he works with a
company involved in the construction of a new college
for the State of California. His wife, Lynn, is from
East Tennessee.
Oldest daughter, Susan Connell Beathard, is a homemaker
and mother to Cindy's four grandchildren, CJ (Casey
Jarrett), age seven; six-year-old Tucker Russell,
four-year-old Clay, and "the little bow on the package"
Charlie Jane, who is one and a half years old.
Susan's husband, Casey Beathard is a songwriter in
Nashville who has written hits for artists such as Tracy
Bird, Tracy Lawrence, Gary Allan, Clay Davidson, Kenny
Chesney, and Mark Wills.
"I love it because I can catch lines in the song that I
know came from his home life; he writes sweet songs,"
Cindy says.
In a fitting tribute to the ongoing efforts of the
American Red Cross, net proceeds from Casey's latest
hit, "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly"
(which was co-written by Aaron Tippin and Kenny Beard
some two years ago and recorded after the September 11
tragedy by Aaron Tippin) are being donated to the
organization's disaster relief fund.
Cindy can't say enough about the good accomplished by
the organization in each of its seven areas of service:
disaster services, biomedical services, armed forced
emergency services, health and safety services,
international services, community services, and youth
services.
True to its promise in time of need, Cindy reported that
the Red Cross had three sites set up at ground zero
within an hour of the World Trade Centers' collapse, to
assist people.
"I've always done volunteer work," Cindy says, "My mom
encouraged all of us to give back to the world. But you
can't do everything; you have to be selective about what
you give your time to. Red Cross has been an
organization I've been involved with since way back
then. I see the Red Cross as being an organization that
is respected on an international level, that has the
ability to transcend cultural and political boundaries,
that can go anywhere in the world and be respected and
get the job done."
It's thanks to people like Cindy that the job gets done.
Cindy is the daughter of the late R.B. and Russelline
Hilliard Summers, and sister to younger brothers Barry,
Roger and Joel Summers. |
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