A woman from Connecticut's shoreline has spent the past 66 years volunteering for the American Red Cross, and has worked in some of the worst disaster areas in the country's history.
B.J. Crown was a teenager when she first joined the Red Cross.
"I started when I was 14 years old, and someone from the Red Cross came to talk to our class about how wonderful it would be if we joined the Junior Red Cross, and we could learn how to make beds and we could learn how to feed patients," she said.
Crown later began a career in nursing, specializing in psychiatric care.
"I worked at the VA in Newington for a few years and I worked at the Institute of Living for a few years, and then I retired from Manchester Hospital," Crown said.
Throughout her career, Crown performed volunteer work for the Red Cross, helping with blood drives and teaching.
"I started teaching courses. I taught nurses' aide courses and I worked as a volunteer chairperson for the chapter for about four years," she said.
Crown also responded to local disasters such as the Windsor Locks tornado in October 1979.
"I was doing health services, trying to find out who had lost things that needed replacing and who needed medication that they had lost and things like that," she said.
She said she then joined a crisis response team that took her to some of the biggest disasters in the nation's history.
"On the CRT -- which is the Crisis Response Team -- we are expected to be in the air within four hours of notification," she said.
Crown said that she was driving on Interstate 95 when she heard the first reports about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I heard them talking about a fire at the World Trade Center, and I thought, 'Woo, that sounds awful.' Then all of a sudden they said, 'Wait, wait, there's a plane flying right into the tower.' I was on call that month … and I had my bag packed and it was in my car, so I just turned around and started into New York," she said.
She said she was in New York by 11:30 a.m.
She was assigned to be in charge of the mental health response, and dispatched crews throughout the city. She said that at the age of 73, she also assembled a phone bank for anyone suffering from the attacks to talk.
"I was there for about two and a half weeks, but we were working 20-hour days. The first night I slept in my car," she said.
Crown was also called to the scene of the Rhode Island night club fire.
"I got a call in the middle of the night from the Boston chapter, which said, 'You have to get up here. We've got a response, there's a club fire,'" she said.
She has responded to the Midwest floods of 1993, and was there after Korean Air Flight 801 crashed over Guam.
Fellow volunteers said that despite her age, Crown is always there to help.
"She goes out on disasters and does the nitty-gritty and gets right down -- down and dirty. I mean, staying in your car at Sept. 11 just so you can be there to help people for the next day -- that's B.J.," said Red Cross volunteer Sonja Kirk.
Crown said that volunteers don't have to be nurses to help the Red Cross, and that local chapters are looking for volunteers with a variety of talents.
"We are able and ready to respond to disasters locally, but we just never know how large the next disaster is going to be, so we need to continue recruiting volunteers," said Mario Bruno of the American Red Cross.
Bruno said that while nurses and mental health workers are needed, a medical background isn't needed to volunteer.
"Every little skill out there is something that we may need to use in a large disaster," he said.
He said that car donations are also very much in need.
For more information about volunteer opportunities or making a donations, visit the
Connecticut chapter of the Red Cross Web site or its
site for volunteers or call
1-877-CT-RED-CROSS.
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