National Response Team members have offered a supporting presence following the tragedy. Photo: Bobb Barnes, PDA National Response Team

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 (Day 2)

The Rev. Nancy Dawson, Executive Presbyter of Peaks Presbytery met with the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance National Response Team (PDA-NRT) members at Cooper House Campus Ministry Center (PCUSA). PDA-NRT members Jim Kirk and Anne Van Allen accompanied Dawson to Blacksburg Presbyterian Church where all spent time with Associate Pastor Susan Verbruggi.

Susan Verbruggi invited Nancy Dawson, and all, to attend a meeting at the church for the faculty of Virginia Tech as well as an afternoon meeting with a small group of Presbyterian Pastors who call themselves the New River Presbyterian Network. The group also visited with the Rev. Linda Dickerson of Northside Presbyterian Church.

PDA-NRT member Bobb Barnes was asked to assist the American Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team (ARC-SRT) in meeting with arriving unaffiliated clergy and to assist in providing pastoral care coverage for the meeting of victim families with the medical examiner.

Barnes encouraged the inclusion and participation by the other PDA-NRT members (Jim Kirk and Anne Van Allen) in this role, and then assisted in a debriefing session with the Salvation Army as members of the Salvation Army and several organizations were terminating their involvement in the event.

Bobb Barnes was placed on loan with the ARC-SRT to provide training for newly arriving volunteer chaplains and perhaps to assist in the interview process for self-activating chaplain walk-ins.

Ann Van Allen agreed to be on-call at the Inn at Virginia Tech, the facility where victim families congregate and where some are also housed.