When a war broke out in the midst of Renee Bassell’s stint packing IV kits as a Volunteer for Israel, she didn’t get scared. She got rational.
Working on a military base near Tel Aviv “is the safest place to be,” said the feisty Union City septuagenarian. “You’re surrounded by soldiers with guns.”
Bassell was one of a handful of Bay Area residents participating in the Volunteers for Israel program when hostilities commenced in full between Hezbollah and Israel. The program places volunteers from around the world on Israeli military bases to undertake tasks that would normally occupy soldiers — packing parachutes, cleaning and oiling equipment and sterilizing medical tools. When Israel ratcheted up from vigilance to combat, the volunteers had that much more to do.
“They’re doing more than their normal hours of work. They have day shifts and night shifts,” said Kay Warren, a national board member of VFI.
“They’re doing all the support stuff and because the soldiers are actually moving, more support is needed.”
For Bassell it was her 10th or 12th stint with VFI (she’s lost count) and she didn’t feel “panicky” during the tough times. But she understands why some people would.
“Everyone’s got their cell phones now that work all over the world and their children are calling and saying ‘are you all right? We’re scared for you! Come home!’ And that added a little agitation to the air,” she said.
But of the 25 volunteers on her base, she thinks only one left. And Bassell didn’t have to worry so much about calls from her children because her daughter, Alexandra Stanley, was volunteering alongside her. For Stanley, the stint with VFI was her first trip to Israel.
Keeping volunteers in Israel during combat is one thing. Getting people to hop on a plane to a nation at war is something else entirely. Still, the program continues unabated and Bay Area volunteers are headed overseas.
Retired San Francisco teacher Marilyn Brown was scheduled to land in Israel on Wednesday, August 2. Despite a litany of reasons not to go thrown her way by friends and family, the idea of canceling the trip didn’t cross her mind.
“I love Israel, I support the country, I want them to survive. If I can help out this way, I’m going to do it,” she said.
Brown’s 18-year-old daughter, Lauren Brown-Cornell, noted her mother didn’t even tell anyone about the trip until the tickets were paid for.
“We all have our beliefs and convictions but not all of us do something about them. I commend her for going there not to vacation but to work,” said Brown-Cornell.
“I’d rather she just stay home, actually,” she added.
Brown, however, is confident enough to put her life in the program’s hands: “I believe VFI is going to put me in a safe place. This program would be in jeopardy if they didn’t.”
Bassell knows this firsthand. While she was stationed near Tel Aviv, a number of volunteers were working on a base near Haifa. After rockets and missiles began thudding into the city, those volunteers were moved to Tel Aviv so quickly they didn’t even have a chance to pack up their spare belongings (those were shipped down later).
“The work we were doing was so incredibly relevant because we were working on a base packing up medical supplies and I knew they were going to the front line,” said Stanley, Bassell’s daughter. “It also gave me the opportunity to talk and interact with the Israeli soldiers.”
Not every Israeli understood what would make Stanley spend her two weeks of vacation from her teaching job volunteering on a military base in a nation at war. But one Bedouin soldier recognized it immediately.
“He really understood, because he [too] had volunteered to serve.”
For more information about Volunteers for Israel, call (866) 380 6464 or visit www.vfi-usa.org.