Dorothy Burton, Licensed Massage Therapist originally from Kaltag living in Fairbanks, and myself, Medical Technologist working in the laboratory at Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue,and a certified Clinical Aromatherapist, both had the opportunity to work as volunteers assisting Doug Rasmusson and the Carolina Emergency Massage Team (CERMT pronounced KERMIT) in New York City two weeks over Christmas and New Years. Our mission was to give a 15 minute chair massage and clinical aromatherapy for stress relief and respiratory complications to firemen, policemen, heavy equipment operators, counselors and volunteers from around the world who are working through the devastation and grief at Ground Zero in NYC. This chair massage routine was developed over the years serving disaster and trauma relief sites throughout the nation. We were brought there together to work alongside the Carolina Emergency Response Massage Team (CERMT) of North Carolina, the Florida Immediate Response Stress Team (FIRST) from Florida, several members of the newly formed team from Great Britain, and the newly formed team from California.

We were kept busy from the moment we stepped off the plane on the day after Christmas right up until Jan 6th when we returned to Anchorage. We all stayed in the same hotel in Midtown where relief workers for Ground Zero were staying.

We met in the evenings with Doug Rasmusson and all team members for informal debriefings (which reminded me of Talking Circles) and received instructions on where we would each be working the next day or night shifts. I was impressed with the mutual support and compassion that the team members showed for each other. We were stationed at various locations throughout the city day and night traveling in groups of 3 to 5 via NYC subway or taxi. Each team of Massage Therapists had at least one person with them to assist who was knowledgeable in Therapeutic Aromatherapy. Each therapist carried their own portable massage chair with them to each location.

Our assignments covered areas such as St Paul's Cathedral on Broadway, the little church that is right next to the World Trade Center site. This was a haven for the workers at Ground Zero working 24 hours to come in for food, rest and relief and spiritual connection. Everywhere there were comforting letters and pictures from the hearts of people from all over the world supporting the people who lost family and friends. There were stuffed animals and blankets on each pew in case someone wanted to curl up and take a nap. Some of my favorite cards and letters and the most comforting to me were from the children of all ages. I remember reading one from a 5 year old that said, "we love you and together with God's help we will get through this, we are with you in our hearts." There were volunteers who came from around the world there working together as a team to help. The love, kindness and compassion transcended all cultural backgrounds and geographical locations. We were in the little healing corner next to the kitchen and food line. There was a place for chair massage, Aromatherapy and Chiropractic care for anyone who needed it. There were firemen, police men, heavy equipment operators, counselors, and volunteers who were so very appreciative and seemed to truly benefit from the few minutes that they took off for themselves. They could not thank us enough for sharing these healing arts with them. We were not there to ask questions or to talk but to provide a safe place for them to take a break and relax and to listen if they needed us to.

Another location where we worked was at the Staten Island Landfill which was designated a forensic crime scene. This is where officials were sifting through the WTC devastation day and night searching for the remains of our lost ones. Many had not had a day off since Sept 11 as everyone was dedicated to helping each other and friends and families of those lost with closure and working through the grief together. We were there sharing with them several of the most helpful healing arts, Massage Therapy and Aromatherapy. Both therapies helped with stress and with some of the severe respiratory complications that they are experiencing. One policeman gave me his heartfelt thanks for all of us coming and being there with them sharing these healing arts with them and for giving our support and for sharing the great burden that has been placed on all of our hearts and souls. It was good for all of us to be there together and for them to know that we are still all with them as we work through the devastation and grief. And as I heard several of our beloved Tribal Doctors talk about how it is going to take a long time for all of us to work through this grief,even generations and we need to hit it head on.

We were able to visit and work with several Safe Horizons Counseling services and Family Crisis Centers who very much appreciated our services. We had the privilege to visit with many fire stations and Police Departments throughout the city. They had all experienced such loss and sadness. They were all so kind to us and happy that we were there. The love and compassion was never ending from everyone. We all swapped stories and experiences as we shared our healing therapies with them and we were even sometimes able to laugh together which was good for all of us. They enjoyed learning about Alaska and we promised to send Salmon their way this summer so my husband, Lester and his friends will be very busy working on this project! Several Police men asked that we try to visit more police stations especially in the Bronx where they are in such great need of these comforting healing arts.

Many have asked that we come back to assist those working very hard to provide these healing therapies. We will also be working closely with a physician at the land fill on providing therapeutic aromatherapy to help address the severe respiratory complications they are experiencing. The next trip is planned for the week of Feb 10 for seven days. It is very important for everyone to work together towards keeping these healing arts going consistently and being there for them over the next few months. There are those in NYC who are dedicated to this project and are working with CERMT and FIRST and now the Response Emergency Stress Team of Alaska (RESTA)and Great Britain and California to help provide these services on an even keel. We need more Licensed Massage Therapists and Aromatherapists and supplies sent their way.

On the day after returning from this trip, I jumped right in trying to get together supplies that I know they need ready to send, was concerned about how to keep all of this going for them, got the process going for RESTA, called Levon Bevon, director of the Massage Therapy program at UAA asking if there would be any way for our Tribal Doctors to get their certificate in this chair massage routine so that they could go with us next trip, tried to write up my experience to share with others who wanted to hear, attempted to focus on my family and work responsibilities, and I was worried about my teammate, Dorothy who had stayed a few days later to spend time at the American Indian Community Center and who hadn't contacted me yet. All the while wishing to visit my friends at ANMC to share experiences and then back up to Kotzebue to work to share with friends and co-workers there. Then I collapsed with exhaustion. Thank goodness I had a few more days off before returning to work at MHC.

With help from other team members from CERMT and FIRST, I was able to focus on my own debriefing. Then by a miracle I was connected with Captain Bert Mcqueen of the Alaska Police Chaplains division when I was trying to work on yet another project I felt was important right away and that was bringing in some speakers for the next CISM conference on massage emergency response. Captain Mcqueen is very experienced with Ground Zero and he immediately suggested that I get into a formal guided debriefing session with their clinical director, Bob Nelson at the Vet Center on Tudor. Dr Nelson is from New York originally and has been involved in debriefing on site for all those at Ground Zero since September. So I made an appointment and this three hour session helped me tremendously and helped me to understand some of what I was experiencing since returning from Ground Zero this week as well as preparing me for what was to come. He said it was a wonderful thing that we all did, coming together from all directions to work as a team with the other volunteers. I did hear from Dorothy and turns out she was experiencing the same exhaustion and I referred her as well as our other team members to talk with Dr Nelson. I believe it is very important for everyone coming back from Ground Zero to go through this session ASAP. This way we can help ourselves before we extend any more energy to try to help others.

Dorothy and I did have one day off during the trip as all volunteers did. We met with the ladies at the American Indian Community Center in NYC. Dorothy had a sobriety stake for ceremony that she wished to share with them and I wanted to learn more about the Native American Community in NY and talk to them about our dream of a national healing ceremony to be held there together. We met Rosemary Richmond and several of the ladies and spent the afternoon with them and had such a wonderful time. We shared the Circle of Healing written by Dr Morgan about health care in Alaska focusing on Traditional Healing which really encouraged them to know what we were doing up here. Rosemary said that there are six nations in New York all under the French Name, Iroquois. She said that there are many Native Americans working at Ground Zero operating the heavy equipment. We also talked about something my husband, Lester had always talked about and that is he remembers while he was stationed in New York many years ago, he saw the building of the Towers and that they were mostly Native American people way up in those rafters! He remembers seeing them walking on the beams as light as a feather and eating lunch as if they were sitting on the ground! The ladies there talked about their upcoming trip to Ecuador to visit and support the women and communities there. They have been working for years on wonderful theater productions and workshops addressing problems in our communities such as substance abuse, suicide, HIV and other problems and they always weave traditional healing ways, spirituality and humor into their productions. Susan Jones, director of the Family Crisis Center in Kotzebue, Alaska had sent us the commemorative posters from the 1999 Circumpolar Celebration of Women that the community hosted for people from around the world addressing healthy ways of living in communities. I am grateful that Susan sent us these wonderful posters to share with people in NY. We left one for the people at St Paul's Cathedral and they put it up in the healing corner. We also gave them to Safe Horizons family crisis centers, fire stations and police stations where we visited who just loved them. We invited them all to the 2004 Circumpolar Celebration in Kotzebue and hope that the people from the American Indian Community center and the museum might present their workshop productions then. They were very happy about that and we said we would dream it, pray about it, and sleep on it and it will happen! Dorothy stayed there with them (she was enjoying them so much and they were enjoying her!) while I went on over to the Native American Smithsonian Museum to visit them and to do some work for our Traditional Healing library project at ANMC. There were two wonderful exhibits there, one was Iroquois Beadwork and the other Spirit Capture. The exhibit that really touched me there was the "All Roads are Good" exhibits.

There was one huge exhibit done by a local Native American Artist on All Roads Are Good that had thousands of shoes and moccasins from around the world through out time all arranged in a beautiful artful exhibit as if they were all walking together. Very impressive. Also there was the theme of "Gathering From Four Directions" with the first Americans and people from all over the world. The ladies there work closely with the community center and they too are very involved in theater productions addressing community and family problems and finding solutions that help. The web site for the community center is: http://www.conexus.si.edu and the web site for the museum is: http://www.coatlicue.com

All agreed that once everyone has been found at Ground Zero and some closure has come for the families, then may be the time for memorials and for a National Healing Ceremony held there together for all to come from Four Directions.

Tina Melin, Medical Technologist, Clinical Aromatherapist
Maniilaq Health Center Laboratory
Kotzebue, Alaska
Volunteer with Alaska Native Medical Center-Southcentral Foundation
Traditional Healing Library Archives Project
Anchorage, Alaska

PO Box 774413
Eagle River, Alaska 99577
907-694-8908
nunmuk@alaska.net