A volunteer is a person who offers his/her services, who may or may not charge a fee. One thing is definite, that a volunteer’s work is for the benefit of another party. Some volunteer professionals are sent to another country to help in times of calamities, they are paid for their services by the government that sent them.
But practically volunteering is offering service for welfare of others without any pay. A volunteer’s concern is to do good without expecting anything in return; giving without regard to pay and recognition. It is like an ethical standard and a common virtue among many cultures that an able person have moral obligation to extend help especially to those who are in urgent needs.
At a disaster stricken area, the number of dead people is often inevitably raised by the lost lives of volunteer workers. Many volunteers live to tell their stories on how they unselfishly committed themselves in service for others to live. One of them is a volunteer ironworker at the 9/11 ground zero. He is JOE PICURRO, a former freelance ironworker from New Jersey.
During the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center almost 3000 people were killed and they are remembered in commemoration of that event. Thousands of rescue workers came at ground zero and some of them became sick after being contaminated. Joe showed up at ground zero after watching on TV how the towers fell to the ground. Knowing that policemen and firemen don’t have the tools to cut steel, he packed up some of his tools and drove more than 60 miles to get to New York.
There he was just like walking into hell according to Joe. They were putting body parts in large buckets (5-gallon capacity) and it made him felt so bad. He worked there for 28 days. After the first 14 days he went home, rested 8 days and returned to ground zero and worked for another 14 days. He was aware that there would be no place to sleep, so they slept on the floor of the American Express Building when they could, with all the dust and glasses.
He is now 42 years old (only) and Joe is dying of a lung disease acquired from his rescue work. His doctor said his lungs are so inflamed by so much tiny particles of glass and human bone that every breath he takes is that painful. Here is a part of Joe’s statement in an interview with Amy Goodman in Democracy Now.
“ Basically, the doctor said, you know, if he could get me another year or two, you know, he would—you know, he’d be surprised. And so, I’m on thirty-seven medications—well, actually thirty-nine; he put me on two more, you know, when I went to see him yesterday”.
“And, you know, most of my problems come from my lungs, but my whole body is racked with pain, all my joints. It’s just like a laundry list of problems. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, you know? Breathing, like I said, is the hardest. Like I said, I’m hooked up to oxygen now. My lungs have concrete and glass and human bone fragments in them. And, you know, so what happens is your lungs are the only organ that rejuvenate themselves, and mine, instead of growing viable lung tissue, they’re growing—it’s growing scar tissue. So it’s making my lungs get bigger and bigger. And when I take a deep breath, my lungs actually rub against my ribs, and it hurts”.
Joe has a short time left to live. His compensation from New York totals $500 a month after a battle in court for four years. He joined thousands of volunteers at ground zero from the first night working hand in hand with cops and all the other emergency units who responded. He was a volunteer without pay. Now he is dying and all he gets is $500 a month.
There are more like Joe who literally has eaten deadly toxins and particles who were at ground zero, now very sick and dying. But still there will always be volunteers who act on instinct to help others. Volunteers are the unsung heroes who rescue and save lives without reservations.