Good People Doing Good Things — Team Rubicon Again! And Yet AGAIN!

Posted on October 12, 2022 by jilldennison under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Good people doing good things, Social commentary

In October 2017 in another ‘good people post I wrote about Team Rubicon, a group of veterans started by Jake Wood, in 2010, initially in response to the devastating earthquake that had hit Haiti, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and at least that many more homeless. Wood convinced a former classmate and a few other former Marines to join him and starting off with a group of 8, they headed to Haiti with medical supplies and equipment. But, the story didn’t end there. After Haiti, Wood and his friend William McNulty did some brainstorming, realized that their group was pretty effective, and veterans had the skills and know-how to do such things. In the years since, the group expanded to over 150,000 volunteers, 70% of them veterans, and have been all over the world providing assistance to people in the wake of natural disasters and regional conflicts. In all, they have responded to more than 500 humanitarian crises in the past decade.

Then in July 2021, Team Rubicon crossed my radar once again when CNN reported on them for their response to the pandemic since 2020. When the pandemic first hit, Wood knew there would be a need for their services, and they were there, supporting food banks, delivering groceries, setting up Covid testing sites, vaccination sites and much more. And here we are, just over a year later, and Team Rubicon has volunteers helping people in three areas:

In Puerto Rico AND Prince Edward Island, Canada, helping to clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona that hit both locales in late September
In Western Alaska where people are trying to recover from Typhoon Merbok that destroyed nearly all the food supply when it hit last month
In Florida, coordinating relief and clean-up efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ian that hit at the end of September

When I first wrote about Team Rubicon in 2017, they had 33,000 volunteers … today they have more than 150,000! Here are a few tidbits from Team Rubicon’s website regarding their most recent efforts.

In Florida …

One week after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, Team Rubicon is expanding its disaster response operations in the state. As of October 5, the veteran-led nonprofit’s route clearance teams had conducted 37 route clearance events, moved 6,680 cubic yards of debris, and removed 131 obstructions across the state.

One week out, roadways remain covered in debris and home owners and residents are faced with extensive damage and flooding, and the overwhelming question of where to turn as they try to recover. To assist the survivors of Hurricane Ian, Team Rubicon has been expanding operations in multiple counties in Florida.

Currently, 67 Greyshirts are deployed in Charlotte County where they are clearing debris, mucking out flooded homes, performing chainsaw operations, and tarping roofs. Another 25 Greyshirts are currently deployed to Lee County and eight are on the ground in Polk County. The veteran-led disaster response organization hopes to deploy more than 300 volunteers to Florida to assist with Hurricane Ian disaster relief over the next month.

In Alaska …

On September 16, remnants of Typhoon Merbok produced widespread damage to communities in Western Alaska, including Golovin. The storm flooded homes and businesses; damaged infrastructure—including the power grid and water supply system—and washed away roads and bridges. According to U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office, the 2022 typhoon damaged approximately 1,000 miles of coastline.

Set along the Bering some 200 miles below the arctic circle and 500 miles from Anchorage, as the crow flies, Golovin was one of the areas most heavily damaged by Typhoon Merbok. Much of the village was under 6 feet of water, and all of it was without power for days. To assist in the village’s recovery, Team Rubicon is deploying a team of volunteers, or Greyshirts, to Golovin to provide muckout and expedient home repair services to the remote coastal village before winter freeze up.

Over the course of the operation, which is expected to last until October 7, Greyshirts will muckout damaged homes and teach local volunteers how to perform muckouts. Due to the remoteness of the village and lack of local resources, all equipment, supplies, and food needed for the operation will be flown in from Anchorage with the Greyshirts who will be camping and working in primitive conditions for the duration of the operation. To support the community going forward, all excess or unused equipment and supplies will be left in Golovin at the end of the operation.

In Puerto Rico …

Less than 20% of the island had electricity and 55% percent of Puerto Ricans were without water. “This is even bigger than it looks,” says Team Rubicon CEO Art delaCruz. “Any disaster that knocks out an entire power grid is a very big deal.”

The first dozen Greyshirts from the Continental U.S. are engaged in recon and establishing operating locations, then will begin assisting with recovery efforts. The organization expects to begin deploying numerous other Greyshirts soon.

The deployment to Puerto Rico is not the veteran-led humanitarian aid organization’s first trip to the island: It responded to Hurricane Maria in 2017. Greyshirts then returned in 2018 to help with rebuild and recovery efforts, putting new roofs on 512 homes.

This is the third time I’ve written about Team Rubicon, but these guys deserve all the kudos we can give them, for these are people who drop everything to go thousands of miles to help others when the need arises. They certainly get two thumbs up from me, and I suspect this won’t be the last time, either!

Good People Doing Good Things — Team Rubicon Again!

Posted on July 7, 2021 by jilldennison under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Good people doing good things, Social commentary

In October 2017 in another ‘good people post I wrote about Team Rubicon, a group of veterans started by Jake Wood, in 2010, initially in response to the devastating earthquake that had hit Haiti, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and at least that many more homeless. Wood convinced a former classmate and a few other former Marines to join him and starting off with a group of 8, they headed to Haiti with medical supplies and equipment. But, the story didn’t end there. After Haiti, Wood and his friend William McNulty did some brainstorming, realized that their group was pretty effective, and veterans had the skills and know-how to do such things. In the years since, the group expanded to around 120,000 volunteers, 70% of them veterans, and have been all over the world providing assistance to people in the wake of natural disasters and regional conflicts. In all, they have responded to more than 500 humanitarian crises in the past decade.

This week, Team Rubicon crossed my radar once again when CNN reported on them for their response to the pandemic for the past year. When the pandemic first hit, Wood knew there would be a need for their services …

“We immediately pivoted to get our volunteers doing work like supporting food banks, delivering groceries directly to people’s doorsteps, setting up Covid testing sites. I’m really proud of the contribution we’ve made.”

The group established a nationwide campaign, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, to help the most vulnerable members of society in a way that keeps at-risk populations safe and contains the spread of the virus. This campaign offered volunteers many ways to get involved. While most Team Rubicon operations are highly organized, Wood encouraged volunteers to do what he calls “individual acts of service” — such as checking on an elderly neighbor or helping someone whose immune system is compromised.

Wood’s group also assisted with a number of large-scale operations across the United States. Veterans helped get food to those in need, often in conjunction with organizations like Feeding America and Meals on Wheels. Additionally, Team Rubicon’s volunteers helped operate critical health care efforts, such as a drive-thru testing site and a 250-bed federal medical station in Santa Clara, California.

For the past six months, the group has also been very involved with vaccination efforts in all 50 states.

“We’ve supported hundreds of sites across the country, doing the simple things like site setup and teardown, patient registration, optimizing patient flow. It’s been a modern-day medical wartime effort to get doses into the arms of Americans. And so, we’re really proud we’ve been able to support nearly two million doses across the country.”

During the pandemic alone, Team Rubicon says its volunteers have so far helped nearly 10 million people around the country.

“This was a whole of America emergency, and it required a whole of America response. This is a moment for all Americans to rise to the occasion by thinking about the greater good.”

CNN recently interviewed Wood regarding Team Rubicon’s efforts during the time of the pandemic. Here is a brief snippet from that interview …

CNN: Your volunteers pitched in a lot with food distribution. Is that type of work usual for Team Rubicon?

Jake Wood: It’s certainly outside the norm of what we do, but we quickly saw that food banks and food security in general would become really important in this pandemic. Many food banks and pantries rely on volunteers, like we do, but many of those (volunteers) tend to be in the at-risk demographic of over 65. So, those services were grinding to a halt, just as they were becoming more needed. Our volunteers have been helping with the logistics of food sorting and getting meals to people’s doorsteps.

CNN: How has Team Rubicon been helping with the medical needs that have been sparked by this virus?

Wood: We have had volunteers on the front lines of all this — whether they’re running a testing site in North Carolina or a hospital center in California. We’ve also deployed members of our international medical team here domestically to help decompress health care systems that were overwhelmed.

One of my proudest accomplishments over the last year was the work that we did in the Navajo Nation. The people living there had one of the highest case rates and fatality rates of anywhere in America and Team Rubicon stepped in with hundreds of medical providers for nearly 300 days. I have no doubt that we were saving the lives of numerous people while we were there. And that’s now extended into the vaccine work.

We’ve supported over 12,000 vaccinations in the Navajo Nation, which has one of the highest vaccine uptake rates of anywhere across the country, which is a testament to the community-oriented approach that they have. It’s that mentality of, “We’re in this together” — and we need more of that across the country.

CNN: How do you think your group has handled all of the challenges posed by the pandemic?

Wood: Fifteen months ago, we were all faced with a choice: Were we going to retreat into our cave and hope that the pandemic would pass us by or were we going to help as many people as we could? And at Team Rubicon, we didn’t blink. We stretched ourselves into missions that we had never imagined doing before.

Our team was flexible, adaptive, innovative — and they were committed to helping their country during one of the greatest crises it’s ever faced. The one thing that I’d want people to know about Team Rubicon is that when you need us, we will be there.

I give Team Rubicon two thumbs up for their dedication and hard work. To learn a bit more and see some of the other places they’ve been, people they’ve helped, check out their website!

Good People Doing Good Things — Team Rubicon

Posted on October 5, 2017 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Good people doing good things, Social commentary

His name is Jake Wood and his story started with a simple Facebook post: “I’m going to Haiti. Who’s in?” It was January 2010, and the island of Haiti had just suffered a devastating earthquake with a still-disputed death toll of between 100,000 and 315,000.

Jake had only been out of the U.S. Marine Corps for a few months, and was planning to enroll in business school when he began seeing the pictures of the devastation in Haiti and thinking how much it reminded him of similar scenes from Iraq and Afghanistan, where he had served two tours of duty. He realized that the skills he had acquired in the service, including the ability to adapt to difficult conditions, work with limited resources and maintain security in a dangerous environment, were sorely needed. And that was when he put out the Facebook message. Wood persuaded his college roommate, a firefighter, to join him. Within minutes of seeing Wood’s Facebook post, another friend and former Marine, William McNulty, signed on. Interest quickly snowballed, and three days later, he and seven others were in the Dominican Republic, heading into neighboring Haiti with medicine and equipment.

Over the next three weeks, more than 60 volunteers — mainly from medical or military backgrounds — followed Wood’s lead and made their way to the stricken country to join his group. They set up triage centers in camps, treating whoever they could, and helped ferry people to hospitals. Wood estimates they helped thousands of Haitians.

They called their group Team Rubicon, in reference to the phrase “crossing the Rubicon,” which means passing a point of no return. Little did they know how prophetic that name would prove to be. All along, Wood thought of his sojourn to Haiti as a one-time event, still planning at that time to return home and start business school. But, as so often happens, life had other plans for Team Rubicon.

In the beginning …

Wood and McNulty did some thinking and talking …

“We realized we were more effective than many organizations that were down there with us. We also realized that most organizations weren’t engaging vets on their own. So we said, ‘Let’s try to improve this.'”

And that is just what they did! Team Rubicon became a nonprofit, and in the first two years the group built an army of more than 1,400 volunteers — 80% of them military veterans — who respond to disasters and help those in need. They ran 14 missions in those first two years, running triage clinics after the Chile earthquake and the flooding in Pakistan. They traveled to Sudan and Myanmar to help people caught in regional conflicts. And in 2011, they removed debris and assisted in search-and-rescue missions following tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Joplin, Missouri.

In 2011, however, a personal tragedy caused the group to subtly change its focus. One of the members of Team Rubicon and Wood’s best friend, Clay Hunt, committed suicide. Hunt had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt. It was a shock to Wood, as Hunt seemed to be adjusting well. He was literally a poster boy for returning veterans, appearing in a public-service announcement for a veteran’s advocacy group. And Wood felt guilty …

“It was tremendously difficult to feel like I had let him down, knowing that we had survived two wars together but that when things were easy and it had come to peace, that I wasn’t there enough for him. That has been a very tough battle for me, dealing with that.”

Clay Hunt

Hunt’s death made the group realize that while the job they were doing was important, so was the way in which doing the job was helping the veterans, giving them focus, making them feel useful. So the group changed the way it viewed itself, refocusing its own mission: Instead of being a disaster relief organization that uses veterans, Team Rubicon became a veterans’ support organization that uses disasters as opportunities for continued service.

“We’re giving them a reason to come together … and that community lasts long after the mission,” Wood said. “Right now, Team Rubicon is focused on how we can … get them involved in as many ways as possible.”

There are many, many success stories within the group, but here is one of the first …

Nicole Green served in the Air Force for four years, working as an intelligence officer in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. For her, finding Team Rubicon has been life-changing.

“When I got out of the military, it was very stressful,” she said. “You feel alone. You meet people who don’t understand your background.”

Green volunteered for the group’s first domestic mission, in Tuscaloosa. She enjoyed it so much that she helped out in Joplin less than a month later.

“I felt that I was doing something meaningful with my life again … using a lot of the same skills, but in a way that [was] constructive instead of destructive,” Green said. “And I was with other people who understood me … focused on a common goal. That was really a great feeling.”

Since its inception, Team Rubicon has grown by leaps and bounds and has participated in over 175 missions. The team now has about 33,000 members, and in 2016 Wood lamented that there just weren’t enough natural disasters to keep them all busy. He may feel a bit differently this year!

Remember Hurricane Harvey that hit the Houston area in August? Team Rubicon was there with floodwater rescue teams conducting door-to-door searches in and around Houston while reconnaissance teams conducted preliminary damage assessments. One team conducted an evacuation and cleared two full neighborhoods in neighboring Beaumont. A second rescue team conducted five evacuations, including two elderly residents and their daughter, and yet another conducted 21 rescues and evacuated 27 canines at an animal shelter.

And Hurricane Irma? Team Rubicon was there, too, with operations in Clay, Brevard, and Collier Counties, Florida. So far they have been conducting damage assessments, debris removal, muck‐outs, sawyer operations, and spontaneous volunteer management services to affected communities. This response is only the start of what will be long-term operations.

Team Rubicon expects to remain in both Texas and Florida for some time, helping residents recover from Harvey and Irma. And then came Maria …

It took them a few days to collect the needed equipment and supplies and get there, but Team Rubicon reached San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 25^th, fully three days before the U.S. even lifted the Jones Act and committed to sending aid. Team Rubicon has been assessing hospitals for structural damage, assessing community needs, removing debris, and helping out wherever help was needed.

My time and space are limited, but if you are interested in learning more about Jake Wood and Team Rubicon, there is an excellent article/interview by author/editor Kyle Dickman. It is a bit lengthy, but a fascinating read.

In 2013, Mr. Wood gave a Ted Talk …

According to Team Rubicon’s website, their mission statement is …

“Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams.”

Take a look at the website … I think you will be impressed. They are a class A organization, and their Board of Advisors include such notable retired Generals as Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus.

William McNulty and Jake Wood

I have the utmost admiration and respect for Mr. Wood and co-founder William McNulty for the great things they are doing. What started as a one-shot adventure has turned into a lifetime passion. We will never know just how many people suffering from natural disasters have been helped by the volunteers of Team Rubicon, nor the number of veterans whose lives were improved, perhaps even saved, by knowing that they still have value, that they are doing good things to help others.