From the National Service Blog of Serve.gov
On September 11, 2001, AmeriCorps alum Olive Eckstein was in her native New York looking for work. When the planes struck the Twin Towers, Olive dropped what she was doing and headed downtown to the World Trade Center to see what she could do to help. She felt a deep sense of commitment to her country, responsibility to others in need, and confidence that she could be of assistance – all of which she attributed to her AmeriCorps experience. Having been trained in disaster relief by AmeriCorps, and with prior experience as a paramedic, Eckstein had a skill set that would prove very useful in the rescue efforts. She befriended a group of EMTs at Shea Stadium and traveled with them to what had become known as Ground Zero. They spent the night dousing firefighters’ ash-covered eyes with saline and tending to sooty wounds and burns as they tried to make sense of what they were seeing.
Soon, she was stationed at a nearby elementary school that had become a respite site for the firefighters, police officers, and steel workers who labored intensively at Ground Zero. She worked daily shifts serving food, supporting disaster workers, and organizing supplies to help sustain the recovery process.
Eckstein spent the next several weeks foregoing job interviews and social opportunities because she felt a deep obligation to help those in need.
“Volunteering as an AmeriCorps alum at Ground Zero was an incredible opportunity in the face of such a tragedy,” she said. “Just like AmeriCorps continues to do, it impacted my life in many immeasurable ways, and gave me the opportunity to be on the scene and help our nation’s heroes in one of our darkest days.”
Now an MD, Dr. Eckstein has continued her path in public service in the medical field, serving as a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow in Houston, Texas.
