Union Community Fund Helps Western MA Tornado Victims

June 7, 2011: Dozens of volunteers from several different unions pitched in to help tornado victims.
Rick Brown leads a morning briefing for the volunteers.
Roofless homes on Hancock street in Springfield
Volunteers from AFSCME: Nadine Kennedy, Josh Warden, Rudy Renaud, Russ Clemens
Rick Brown poses with IAM Local 743 volunteer Penny Fitzgerald.
George Noel, representing Deval Patrick's office, explains what volunteers will be doing.
Volunteers from IAM Local 743: Tony Fruster, Brenda Brown, Penny Fitzgerald, and Mark Hebert
Volunteers from the Mass. Nurses Association: Andrea Fox and Heather LaPenn, pictured with Maureen Carney from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Rapid Response team
Elizabeth Cordona, from Governor Deval Patrick's office, explains what volunteers should say to tornado victims.
Volunteers listen in to Elizabeth Cordona
Rick Brown, President, Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO
UAW/GEO Local 2322 member Vira Cage and her husband Edward Cage came down from Amherst to join the Union Community Fund's effort
An uninhabitable home in Springfield.
The tornado littered neighborhoods with massive amounts of debris.
A condemned home on Hancock Street in Springfield.
IAM Local 743 President, Mark Hebert, taking credit for tornado victim Sue Kelleher's heavy lifting.
IAM Local 743 volunteer Tony Fruster fires up the chainsaw.
Volunteers assess the tree damage in Sue Kelleher's backyard.