The 19 Iowans who flew to New York to counsel victims and families of the
September 11th attacks were honored today at the statehouse. Attorney
General Tom Miller called the members of Iowa’s crisis response team “heroes.”
Iowa has already sent two teams of counselors for 10-day tours of duty;
another is to leave soon. Betty Brown of Des Moines counseled pilots and
crews who flew out of the J-F-K airport. She says they found terror, grief, anger, disbelief and a variety of other emotions in talking with the pilots.
Iowa State Patrol Chaplain John Harrell counseled Port Authority officers who lost 37 of their colleagues in the collapse of the World Trade towers. The officers took Harrell to “ground zero” He says he was heartened to see a Musco light truck from Iowa at the site.
Matthew Peterson of Davenport, a corrections officer, accompanied families to ground zero. He says the families went to the edge and look at the rubble and he says he felt a sense of pride being able to show them he cared.
The second group includes many eastern and northern Iowans. The September 23-29 group of counselors: Marti Anderson of Des Moines,
director of the state’s crime victim assistance division; Betty Brown of Des Moines, administrator in Department of Corrections; Jamey Dickinson of Logan, an Iowa State Trooper; John Harrell of Des Moines, a chaplain at Mercy Hospital and Chaplain for the Iowa State Patrol; Laura Stefan James of Waterloo, a treatment coordinator for department of corrections; Kristin Lippincott of Des Moines, investigator in Attorney General’s office; Diane Tonkyn of Iowa City, family therapist at United Action for Youth; Kim Vrieze of Orange City, a victim/witness coordinator for the Sioux County Attorney’s Office; Alison Whall of Des Moines, coordinator of the Iowa Crisis Response Team. The October 7-14 group of counselors: Barbara Bobb of Des Moines, program manger of the New Iowan Center for Iowa Workforce Development; Marcia Bunn of Clear Lake, adult advocate at Crisis Intervention Services; Leonard Fuller of Fort Dodge, violent crime support advocate at domestic and sexual assault outreach center; Elaine Haugen of Ankeny, parish health ministry director at Holy Trinity Lutheran; Sue Stewart-Lodmell of Colona, Illinois, victim witness coordinator for U-S Attorney’s office in Southern District of Iowa; Ginnya City, associate director of United Action for Youth in Iowa City; Matthew peterson, corrections officer and clergy person; Judy Pancratz of Davenport, school social worker at Sudlow Intermediate School; Linda Zwald Ryan of Muscatine, head school psychologist for Mississippi Bend A-E-A; Julie Swanston of Des Moines, crime victim compensation administrator for attorney general’s office.