Medical Reserve Corps volunteer Jackie O’Brien makes sure that Reading Coach Melissa Vadnais is safely retrieving her materials from Munger Hill Elementary School. (SALVATORE FRIERE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – Stephen Malochleb, director of the Greater Westfield and Western Hampden County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) has been busy the last couple of weeks, helping the Westfield Public Schools navigate their changing reality during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Volunteers from the MRC, wearing personal protective equipment, have been giving out bagged lunches and breakfasts from 12 to 1 p.m. at the Powdermill Village and Colonial Pine Acres Apartments, making sure that families coming to collect them maintain a safe distance.
Members of MRC were also at the schools on April 2 and 3 while teachers came to collect needed supplies to start more formal remote learning in the coming weeks.
This week, the MRC volunteers will again be on hand at the schools, as families who indicated a need pick up chromebooks for schoolwork and instruments for students to practice at home. Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said 1,000 families responded to a survey saying they needed the devices at home.
Malochleb said the all-volunteer MRC has rallied before, responding to emergency needs in the community following the tornado in 2011, crippling snowstorms and fires. Currently, he said they have 83 volunteers and 26 applicants, and are always looking for more.
CERT volunteer Jeff Torrey stands ready to help teachers at Southampton Road School. (KATHLEEN O’DONNELL PHOTO)
He said MRC volunteers include doctors, lawyers, mechanics, EMTs, paramedics, nurses and veterinary techs, and they don’t need a medical background to join. “We can take anybody, and give them FIrst Aid and CPR training, and ham radio training.” He said if they want to, they can go on to take EMT courses.
Malochleb said they also need people for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). He said the team can be activated by Emergency Response Director Jim WIggs during an emergency to set up shelter, clear roads, and use chainsaws. For example, he once got a call at 1:30 a.m. to shelter people who lost housing to a fire. “We’ve been on the first call list in certain situations,” Malochleb said.
Malochleb took over as director of the MRC in January from Ed Mello, who founded the non-profit organization in 2002 after 9/11.
Mello also started a Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) which sets up tents to care for pets in an emergency situation. Malochleb said Mello learned about that after Hurricane Katrina, where people refused to leave their pets to go to a shelter and perished. During a major event, people can bring their pets to the DART tent which is set up with crates outside of emergency shelters and staffed with volunteers who are veterinarians and vet techs. Malochleb said their MRC has the only DART response team in the area.
Another innovative piece of the local MRC is its Disaster Food Trailer, a full-roving kitchen which can feed 300 people in an hour during an emergency. The Trailer is also a way for the organization to raise money for scholarships for EMT courses from sales at community events, such as races, concerts and recently a car show at Westover. Mello won a MRC Innovator Fund award for the trailer, Malochleb said.
Besides the trailer, which is not making any money due to canceled events, the organization depends on corporate and private donations.
However, Malochleb said right now during the COVID-19 pandemic, their main purpose is helping the schools keep everybody safe and making sure the kids are getting the meals.
