May 6, 2013 4 min read

Walt Jennings’ experience as a volunteer in the aftermath of the Boston bombings left him a changed man.

“You can’t come back without feeling an emotional connection,” Jennings said. “While a lot of people sustained physical damage … I think there was also a lot of emotional damage that people experienced.

“Just to have that take place right on your doorstep kind of challenges you to recognize that you are vulnerable. And when you see that on television you can shutter and turn the station, but when you’re up close to it you don’t have the chance to turn the station.”

Jennings, 64, of Canton Township, traveled to Boston in the days following the marathon bombings as part of a Red Cross response team. His role as governmental liaison for the nonprofit organization meant that he played an important role in helping city officials set up and operate a center for victims’ families.

“Our job was to provide assistance to survivors and victims,” Jennings said. “In the case of Boston, we had very few fatalities but a lot of injuries – over 250 injured.

“A lot of victims and families needed support. Especially with those hospitalized, families needed support the whole time they needed to be there for family members.”

Jennings began a second career as a Red Cross volunteer in 2009, when he retired from teaching chemistry in Peters Township School District after 33 years. Since then, he has received tailored training through the regional Red Cross office in Pittsburgh, which covers Washington, Greene, Fayette and Allegheny counties.

Although he has worked on the scene of many small, or “individual,” disasters such as house fires and floods, the Boston bombing was the first “mass-casualty event” to take place after he began acting as governmental liaison. When Red Cross needed to bring in additional staff and volunteer support from outside the New England region to respond to the bombings, Jennings was asked to travel to the area.

The marathon was on a Monday, and Jennings landed in Boston Thursday.

“We mounted the operation fairly quickly,” Jennings said. “When they requested assistance from outside of Boston, most of the workers brought in were mental health and spiritual care workers. The mission is to provide mental and spiritual health care for clients.”

The family assistance center that Jennings helped operate also was part of the effort.

“Our purpose was to give the victims one-stop shopping to find out what kind of governmental and nongovernmental assistance was available,” Jennings said.

Jennings said he helped broker communication among the Red Cross, federal, state and local governments and nonprofit organizations, as well as with corporate donors.

“Victim assistance can take all kinds of forms,” Jennings said, “depending on what the needs of family members or the victim would be.”

Jennings said his team primarily focused on helping wounded victims’ families find travel and lodging accommodations, allowing them to be by the side of their loved ones during vital parts of their recovery.

For Jennings, working as a Red Cross volunteer was the perfect pursuit for his retirement.

“I definitely wanted to do volunteer work,” Jennings said. “But I became aware of the Red Cross in conjunction with (Hurricane) Katrina and was particularly impressed with that part of the Red Cross story. You can do some really significant good for people who are in really dire circumstances, something that really fit my moral sensibility.

“It really is something worth doing.”

What the Red Cross does in times of emergency is remarkable, Jennings said, and he was happy to be a part of it.

“My whole point,” Jennings said, “is to get the Red Cross story out. I wanted to give a personal side to the story, not about me but what we do as an organization.”