Dr. Samuel Cameron, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, just returned from a two-week volunteer deployment with the American Red Cross. Cameron was assigned to the Pennsylvania section of the flooding caused by Hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee. The part of the Red Cross relief effort he worked on stretched along the Susquehanna River from the New York to Maryland borders, encompassing more than 11,000 square miles. A total of 1,545 homes were destroyed, and 3,380 received major damage.

Cameron, while stationed in Hazelton, worked mainly in the Harrisburg area. The people along the river were subjected to repeated flooding and stress; the weather just would not give them a break. He served in shelters, did outreach and home visits to the areas most severely affected, and helped out at Red Cross headquarters. He offered supportive and crisis counseling to those in need.

“Dr. Cameron provides for us all the very best example of citizenship: recognizing that we are all in it together,” says President Carl (Tobey) Oxholm III. “We have alumni serving in the armed forces of our country at great personal peril; we have alumni serving in the poorest parts of the globe in the Peace Corps; we have alumni serving the poorest among us in Americorps; and we have faculty, staff and students all around the world—through our College of Global Studies, in service learning projects organized in Glenside, in our student-led initiatives, and in a wide variety of other ways—demonstrating that those with the privileges of receiving the world’s highest quality education recognize their social and moral obligations to give back. We are all very proud of, and Arcadia is honored by, Dr. Cameron for his demonstrated, longstanding, and quiet commitment to others and the public good.”

Since he started volunteering with the American Red Cross during the response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Cameron has been deployed nationally 11 times. His assignments have included the repatriation of American Lebanese citizens during the Israeli conflict, floods, wildfires, ice storms, and tornados. Each deployment has been different and each challenging in its own way.