In case of emergency: How one regional nonprofit stays ready to respond

In April 1998, a deadly metro Atlanta tornado nearly destroyed Sherwin Levinson’s home in Berkeley Lake.

The storm caused $50,000 worth of damage to his home and affected his neighbors’ properties, too. Their streets were blocked for five days, and they had no power for a week.

“And I guess I complained about it too much because I ended up as our city’s first emergency manager,” Levinson said.

He worked with state and federal agencies in that role to coordinate the city’s post-storm clean-up. It was also during his tenure that he learned about the Medical Reserve Corps — a national network of more than 800 units that train and maintain pools of medical and non-medical volunteers to augment officials responding to public health crises.

“This was a way of empowering ordinary citizens to help in emergencies,” Levinson said. “We have lots of emergencies that happen from time to time: flooding, fires, pandemics, you name it.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created the MRC in 2002 in response to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, where he called for all Americans to volunteer.

But when Levinson and his wife attended their first meeting of the MRC Georgia East Metro (GEM) unit in 2006, it was struggling to remain solvent and on the verge of shutting down.

“The then-leader at the public health department said that he really didn’t think it was sustainable unless it became an independent nonprofit,” Levinson said.

Levinson took on the task to make that happen. In 2007, MRC GEM became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and he became its executive director.

Nearly two decades later, MRC GEM has built a cadre of nearly 1,400 trained volunteers. By design, there is not a single paid person on staff, including Levinson; the annual budget of about $60,000 is devoted entirely to monthly and annual training events.

“We’re a bargain,” Levinson said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic alone, MRC GEM saved taxpayers more than $1 million through its volunteers establishing and running testing and vaccination sites in the region. They contributed more than 17,000 hours of volunteer response.

The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic is also an example of a large-scale response MRC GEM has assisted with. MRC volunteers are called for short-notice, smaller-scale emergencies, too.

In April 2019, Levinson got a call one evening requesting his volunteers to help administer tuberculosis testing for more than 2,000 students, faculty and staff at Discovery High School in Lawrenceville. A student had tested positive for TB the month prior and public health officials determined everyone needed to be tested.

Levinson, his wife and other volunteer leaders immediately made calls. By 8 a.m. the next morning, 30 MRC volunteers showed up to spend the next three days at the school.

The ability to respond quickly highlights the capability of MRC GEM, but it also highlights the importance of having a large pool of people to call upon.

“For every one person I might need on short notice, I need to have 100 people vetted and trained,” Levinson said, acknowledging that other responsibilities like children, caring for elderly parents and day jobs can affect a person’s availability.

Levinson said anyone over 18 can apply to volunteer, not just people with medical backgrounds. Most of MRC GEM’s volunteers — about two-thirds — are not healthcare providers, but fill other roles, as they did during the COVID-19 response.

“Lots of people are needed to keep it moving smoothly if you’re trying to do thousands of vaccinations a day,” Levinson said. While a qualified medical team administered the shots, “there were people who had to help handle the crowd, who helped with forms and things like that.”

MRC GEM has sent volunteers all over the state of Georgia, too, helping with hurricane response, warming centers and congregate shelters when people are displaced from their homes.

Levinson said getting involved with the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia has been an important part of ensuring the emergency response capability MRC GEM provides remains available to the community. CFNEG has been a source of networking, training and financial stability.

“My wife and I had absolutely zero experience with nonprofits and fundraising, so we’ve had to learn on the fly,” he said. “We’ve made a lot of good connections through the Community Foundation. Its Nonprofit Academy was very helpful to us, and we’ve sent a number of our leaders there.”

Additionally, MRC GEM’s investment account managed by the Community Foundation has allowed the organization to maintain an emergency fund to allow training to continue even if other funding stops. 

Levinson said he hopes that doesn’t happen, but in his line of work, he likes being ready for anything.

“I just have always been interested in being prepared,” Levinson said.
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