Local Residents Heading for Greece

A team of East End residents is preparing for a trip to the Greek island of Lesbos at the end of this month, where they will volunteer time and energy to the crowds of refugees fleeing war-torn Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria who are landing there after a cold and perilous sea crossing from Turkey.

Melissa Berman, a Montauk resident who had organized volunteers for relief missions in ravaged New York coastal areas after Hurricane Sandy under the aegis of a group called East End Cares, will be arriving on Lesbos with a handful of others on Thanksgiving.

Doug Kuntz, an East Hampton photojournalist who has spent much of the fall working and helping in Greece, expects, after a return to New York this week, to be there again as well. But even before the team arrives, others in the East Hampton community have been pulling together to help.

After a large boat carrying refugees capsized off Lesbos last week and many people, including a number of children, drowned, Ms. Berman heard from a medical team on the island, with which she keeps in touch, of a child that needed to be intubated, but could not be helped because the medics did not have proper equipment.

Ms. Berman contacted Kara Schiff, a medic from Connecticut, who agreed to set out for Lesbos with pediatric and other critical care equipment. There were only a couple of days before her departure, Ms. Berman said, so “we just basically worked around the clock to get her what was needed.”

Helping people who have just reached the beach on Lesbos after a six-mile trip over water primarily entails treating hypothermia, she said, as well as resuscitation. The Montauk Fire Department donated a “big bag of resuscitation supplies,” and J.T. Dunn of Common Cents E.M.S. Supply in Connecticut, a medical supply company, opened its offices on the weekend before Ms. Schiff departed to donate supplies. In addition, Brian Lydon, another Montauk resident who got involved in relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy and has done extensive volunteer work in the Philippines, arranged for the donation of a defibrillator.

Another Montauk resident, Joy Hear, organized a collection drive for wetsuits, needed by rescuers who spend hours, days, and nights wading into cold water to retrieve people and get them safely to land. The wetsuits had already been carried to Lesbos by another volunteer, so that when Ms. Berman heard again from the team in Greece that wetsuits were a key need, she was able to say they were already on their way.

“ ‘You’ve substantially improved our ability to help people,’ ” she said the team told her. “It felt really good to be able to hear that,” Ms. Berman said yesterday morning. “Our surf community just came together; they always do.” 

“We live on an island; we’re an ocean town,” said Ms. Berman, and as such, people here have skills and knowledge that are especially needed on the small Greek island. “The boats are coming around the clock,” she said.

Yesterday, Paddlers for Humanity announced that it would pay for Bob Miller of Montauk, a longtime member of the East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad and an ocean lifeguard for 20 years, to travel there later this month. Fred Doss of Paddlers, which raises funds through a Montauk-to-Block Island paddle, said the group was “very pleased to have the opportunity to support this effort.” Others with training similar to Mr. Miller’s would be welcomed. “They are so needed; they will be saving lives immediately,” Ms. Berman said. Those who are interested may contact her directly, she said.

Emma Newbery, a recent college graduate who grew up and lives in Montauk, will also be making the trip. She has always been drawn to volunteer work and helping others, she said, so when Ms. Berman mentioned the mission, “It wasn’t a question. It was a definite answer.”

She hopes that her decision will be an example to others. “I’m extremely discouraged by my generation,” she said yesterday. “My hope is that this inspires more people of my generation to see what’s out there and help people, to not think about themselves a little bit.”

Living here, a lot is taken for granted, she said. And young people who spend summers working hard at various tourism-related jobs are left with a certain feeling about the world and about others, she observed. “We all work in the service industry, but we’re not helping the people who need it.”

Ms. Newbery said she is preparing for both the physical and mental challenges of the trip, which will be the first time she is “in the crisis zone.”

“If I don’t expect it to shock me, then I’ll be in a worse position,” she said. The young woman is taking time out from her job at Montauk’s Naturally Good shop and cafe to volunteer. A May graduate of the State University at Purchase, she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in film and media studies. The future is unknown, but if  “volunteer work and helping people . . . is what I do for the rest of my life,” that will be fine, she said.

Those making the trip will bring with them, to a limited degree, items that are needed for the rescue work. But Ms. Berman noted that a determination regarding just what sort of help, besides many hands, is needed, will have to wait until the group is in Greece, “to see who’s doing what, and what needs are being addressed, so you can see what needs to be done.”

Nonetheless, individual efforts to collect items for rescue workers and refugees can make a positive impact, Ms. Berman said, adding that those who wish to help should check several regularly updated lists to see what is needed and to make sure they sort items carefully before shipping them to Greece in order to avoid extra work for volunteers there. The list is posted at lesvosvolunteers.com/food-clothes-shoes-bags.

Alternately, items can be purchased from lists maintained by Amazon in the United Kingdom, which will ship goods to their destinations.  Links to them can be found at the East End Cares Facebook page.

One collection, of baby carriers and other children’s items, including children’s boots and socks, is under way on the East End and in Florida, spearheaded by Amanda Frazer, a former Montauk resident who is now in Miami. They will be sent to the Pikpa refugee camp on Lesbos, a stopping point for people who may wind up walking through several European countries on their way to a place where they can resettle.

There are drop-off points at White’s Liquors in Montauk, Coastal Home in Bridgehampton, the Sag Harbor Express office in Sag Harbor, and at the office of The East Hampton Star.

With the help of local businesses such as Buddhaberry, Gurney’s Inn, and Rosehip Partners Real Estate, Sunday school students at the Montauk Community Church have already packaged and sent hats, scarves, and gloves to refugees at a camp in Jordan, inserting handwritten, heart-shaped notes for a “Hats With Heart” project.

Ms. Berman said every effort is needed and appreciated. On Lesbos, she said, “there’s not some big, huge entity; there’s not some government, there’s not some aid organization” mounting the bulk of the effort to help the thousands of arriving refugees. “This whole thing is being held up by a very limited group of volunteers.”

“There’s not enough supplies, and there’s not enough human power to fill the need.”

Fund-raising efforts to pay for what’s needed in Greece are under way by East End Cares with another organization, DoYourPart.org. Tax-deductible donations may be made online at the Do Your Part website or through globalgiving.org/projects/direct-aid-to-syrian-refugees-in-lesvos-greece.