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Salvation Army emotional and spiritual care team is deployed.
by Stefanie Segur –
The Salvation Army was on the scene during the frantic search for a young woman who had been missing in the rugged terrain of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Calif., since early December. The newly formed Emotional and Spiritual Care Team provided hot meals as well as emotional and spiritual support to the family and search workers. Recently, 27 officers from the Del Oro Division underwent training for this purpose, and this was their first deployment.
When asked for their help in feeding 200 searchers, the Army’s Marin County canteen and response team members immediately headed to the search site. Stationed at the incident command post, Captains Thomas and Kimberly Stambaugh from San Rafael and Captains Scott and Barbara Schneider from Petaluma, served hot meals and prayed with searchers.
Captain Kimberly Stambaugh was pleased that The Salvation Army was called on. “The great thing was that we had an opportunity for others to see and understand who we are,” she said. “We even had a chance to meet the lead team member of the FBI. He was so pleased with the Army’s response that he said from now on when the FBI is called out for various missions across the nation, they will call The Salvation Army first.
“I think we left a positive impression on the search party,” Stambaugh added. “We heard many words of praise and thanks from the searchers.”
The team’s goal is to make their services known so they can be of assistance in future instances.
“We provide something most agencies cannot,” said Monica Severson, territorial emergency disaster services director, “emotional and spiritual care to compassionately assist people dealing with trauma.”