By Don Coble, Senior Reporter<\/p>\n
I\u00a0learned on Monday that I will be alone on Christmas. I should be sad, but\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not.\u00a0Nancy received a text message from Team Rubicon, a veteran-based organization that specializes in disaster response, that\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0needed in\u00a0Jamaica.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I want Nancy to be home on Christmas. Jamaica needs Nancy to be with them on Christmas. Needs are more important than what I\u00a0want.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nancy retired as the Deputy Director of Emergency Management of Gwinnett County, Georgia,\u00a0nearly three\u00a0years ago.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0considered a part of metropolitan Atlanta with\u00a01.1 million residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The term \u201cretirement\u201d is used loosely. She started with Team Rubicon in 2022, and\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0been a volunteer since. With her background, she\u00a0apparently has\u00a0special command skills\u00a0that go well beyond my level of understanding. I know\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0on Zoom calls four or five times a week, and she\u00a0remains\u00a0on call seven days a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nancy loves using her knowledge to make a difference.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why I step back and let her do her thing. It gives her purpose, and it makes a difference to thousands\u00a0of people who are hurting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three weeks ago, she was in Alaska.\u00a0Did\u00a0you hear about Typhoon Halong? I\u00a0didn\u2019t. But it\u00a0was a 107-mph storm that did widespread damage in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in early October. More specifically, it destroyed 56\u00a0indigenous villages as the brutal Bering Sea winter approached.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Team Rubicon to the rescue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Volunteers rushed to replace the floors of flooded raised houses. She spent more than two weeks there organizing work crews, who had to do repairs in bitter weather and in remote areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s\u00a0also been deployed to Augusta\u00a0and Douglas, Georgia, following\u00a0Hurricane Helene. She was sent to Punta Gorda following Hurricane\u00a0Milton.\u00a0Team Rubicon also installed smoke alarms in homes in Baker County and AED stations in Clay County. They help with Wreaths Across America and Veterans and Memorial Day ceremonies at\u00a0Jacksonville National\u00a0Cemetery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m\u00a0still working full-time, and her retirement schedule is as busy as mine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After unpacking from her trip to Alaska, she\u2019s now\u00a0headed to a completely different environment. The damage is significant; the desperation is absolute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But help is on the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only payment she wants is the faces of families who finally sleep on a mattress, or who, for the first time in weeks, have a roof over their heads or a hot meal. She said\u00a0that it\u00a0makes her feel\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0paid in full.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I will miss Nancy on Christmas morning, but I will have joy in my heart because I know\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0doing the work that spotlights the true spirit of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas, baby.\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0keep the\u00a0Christmas lights on until you get home.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Don Coble, Senior Reporter I\u00a0learned on Monday that I will be alone on Christmas. I should be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":472084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,15024,15015,15023,15026,3188,15016,723,15021,7310,15020,15022,7648,15018,15017,15025,15019,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-472083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-argyle","10":"tag-clay-county","11":"tag-doctors-inlet","12":"tag-eagle-harbor","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-fleming-island","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-green-cove-springs","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-keystone-heights","19":"tag-lake-asbury","20":"tag-margaret","21":"tag-middleburg","22":"tag-orange-park","23":"tag-pace-island","24":"tag-penney-farms","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115783985296805332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}