Reminiscing with Anne Chan from Northern California
“At 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, the 6.9M Loma Prieta Earthquake shook our building at 1550 Sutter St. I was leaving the building to go to the parking. You guessed it; I turned around to go back to our office. Volunteer and paid staff jumped in to help.”
Anne “Annie” Chan’s work with the Red Cross in the Bay Area in Northern California and on field assignments spanned three decades. She worked in Service to Military Families (Services to Armed Forces), Volunteer Services, and Youth Services across many groundbreaking programs that originated to help with the specific needs of those Bay Area communities. She now helps organize the CA North Coastal ARCAN group and plays a significant role in preserving the written stories of all of her paid and volunteer staff colleagues with whom she served.
Q. Annie, where did your Red Cross journey begin?
A. It all started for me when I was looking for a field work placement while working on my bachelor’s degree in social welfare at U.C. Berkeley. In fall 1977, I began my Red Cross career in the Service to Military Families & Veterans Department (SMF&V) at the Golden Gate Chapter at 1625 Van Ness Ave. After graduation in June 1978, I worked as a part-time caseworker at the Berkeley-West Contra Costa office before transferring to the San Francisco office, also at 1625 Van Ness Ave. to take on a full-time intake-caseworker job in SMF&V. I think Red Crossers relate to the year we started at Red Cross; my start year was 1977.
Q. What are some of your earliest memories of your Red Cross work?
A. There were so many Red Cross services and programs! In addition to learning to do Red Cross basic emergency casework to support service members and their families, we also did the casework part of Disaster Operations. Pete Ashen, then Disaster Director, took me with him to the AFEES (Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station) to serve coffee and donuts from Bob’s Donuts on Polk Street, San Francisco and share Red Cross contact information for family emergencies with those entering military service. These are examples of cooperation between two lines of service.
One story I heard a lot about was when Pete and volunteer Abbie McGreevy, RN led, with many volunteers worked on the San Francisco Red Cross part of receiving and caring for Vietnamese babies and children during the April 1975 Operation Babylift. Many of the children were very sick. The Babylift was a mass evacuation by the U.S. of children (not all were orphans) from South Vietnam. Pete talked about the Airlift operation and receiving and taking care of the children at the Presidio of San Francisco. It was a massive and multi-country operation.
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, we supported local Southeast Asian families in providing verification of relationship to their family members who were in refugee camps. We worked with our representatives at the VA to help military veterans with their benefits. The chapter had many community programs such as Home Health Aide Training, a transportation program, volunteers at the VA Hospital, school youth programs, etc.
Q. What can you tell us about the ways the Bay Area Red Cross reached out to and supported the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the area?
A. One example was our Red Cross Youth for Chinatown Elderly (YCE) Program, an idea of former youth volunteer Mike Jang. It became a long-term program in which new immigrant Chinese-speaking youth helped and learned from Chinese elders. YCE won many awards from NHQ. Thanks to YCE and Asian Community Preparedness Manager, Rita Wong, we were able to participate in the famous annual San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade with the SF Fire Department. She often provided ready-to-print public information bulletins in Chinese to share with the media and community. The YCE program was part of ARCBA for about 30 years, and then was adopted by another San Francisco non-profit agency, CYC-SF and the program continues to this day as Youth for Community Engagement.
Q. Of all your Red Cross experiences, which was your favorite?
A. My favorite experiences were serving on disaster assignments and seeing our Red Cross Youth grow up to be wonderful leaders! Also, going to Australia as a guest of the Australian Red Cross was definitely a career highlight!
Q. You took a brief break away from Red Cross. What did you do?
A. After 5 years, I had job burn-out. I found work as a telephone operator at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Van Ness Ave. (it is now a hospital) and later worked there as a front desk clerk, joining the Teamsters’ Union. However, I learned that… you can take the worker out of the Red Cross but you can’t take the Red Cross out of the worker! After a year away from the Golden Gate Chapter, I returned to work in the Office of Volunteers with Sheelah Castle and later Mary Lou Chapman. In 1983 or 1984, Mary Lou, Florence Holcombe, Susan Miglioli and a small delegation visited the sister-city/Red Cross Society Red Cross in Beijing, China. We loved hosting Red Cross/Red Crescent/MDA Youth from many countries. Currently, I work as a Career Advisor in the Child Development Department at City College of San Francisco.
Q. What’s your favorite thing about being an ARCAN member and leader?
A. To me the best thing about ARCAN is that it helps the Red Crosser family keep in touch with each other and keep current about the organization. As the group chair, I enjoy chatting with our members in Northern California.
Q. What type of activities does the Northern Cal ARCAN group do now? How do you keep in touch?
A. During the transition from ARCRA to ARCAN, we have not had in-person activities. We encourage members to join the ARCAN webinars. We have had some smaller group Zoom check-ins. We just published, for our local retirees, a “booklet” of some of our members’ Red Cross stories.
Q. Do you have any current hobbies or recent travel experiences you’d like to share with us?
A. Recently, I vacationed in Hawaii and met up with a Red Crosser who started volunteering at ARCBA during the Oakland Firestorm in 1991, worked for Red Cross, and is now volunteering at the Hawaii Chapter. Soon, I’ll be going to Seattle to meet up with “my” 1989 Chapman-Holcombe International Intern from Australia, Kate Fisher McColl.
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?\A. Once a Red Crosser, Always a Red Crosser! I’m so grateful that I had such an interesting career with the American Red Cross and made so many friends. Thanks!
