Brother William (Bill) McCallum was the proud recipient of the Union of Taxation Employees very first Humanitarian Award (September 2007) for his amazing efforts recovering victims from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Bill continues to be an avid supporter of this Local and remains available as a natural point of contact for employees seeking assistance regarding the death of loved ones based on Bill’s experience and empathy as a licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer in his “other” life.
Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Bill immediately volunteered and advised he could only commit to 8 weeks as that was all the vacation he had available. He updated his necessary medical immunizations and began taking the preventative medicines required. Bill was considered the “Repatriation Specialist”.
Bill worked in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The devastation was horrific. Roads were crowded with people, animals, cars and trucks making driving extremely poor. While in Haiti, it took Bill almost an hour to drive a mere 10 miles.
The weather was hot and humid. When the rains started, he was either soaked with sweat or from the rain. Bill’s only requirement in going to Haiti was to have a good supply of bottled water. Days averaged sixteen hours with no time off and each day appeared to be the same for him. Added to the isolation and loneliness, Bill also had to deal with the language barrier. While his Spanish, French and Creole improved daily, no one spoke English.
Communication was a problem as the phones did not always work and the electricity was intermittent at best. Even though he had a cell phone, the service was not reliable. He was therefore left with his own devices-usually a smile and sometimes a hug took him a long way.
During the first few weeks, Bill went to the site of the mass graves in Haiti. He worked to arrange more burials for those who were in his care as well as worked with various agencies to complete DNA testing to identify a number of remains in his custody. Once the results were released and the remains positively identified, Bill assisted their families to have them returned to their homelands, to countries he had never heard of before. Bill’s focus was to identify each lost soul with a name, not just a number and to return each PERSON to their waiting parents, widows, children, siblings and community.
Why did Bill do what he did?”
Simply put, “Because Bill cares”