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 Previous: FCC to Prohibit Automatic Control on LA Area Repeater |  Next: ARRL President Visits Pentagon ARES Team |
 Beverly Holtz, KC2IKT. [K2PSY Photo] |
HUNTINGTON, NY, Sep 18, 2001--Ten-year-old Beverly Holtz of Huntington, Long Island, New York, was distraught after hearing of the tragedy at the World Trade Center.
"I slowly explained what the news footage meant," said her father Fred Holtz, K2PSY. "The first thing she said was that she wanted to help."
Neither of them realized just how soon she would get the chance.
About six years ago Fred Holtz revived his interested in Amateur Radio. Soon his young daughter showed an interest in the hobby. Together they studied the electronics and Beverly was especially interested in the questions on emergency procedures.
"I told her that they were very important and you never knew when you would need them," Holtz said.
Father and daughter joined the local radio club and started going to meetings. Eventually she took the FCC exam for the Technician license and passed! She couldn't wait for her license to arrive and was ready to get on the air.
 Sid Wolin, K2LJH, served as a net control station from the Red Cross Headquarters in Nassau County, New York, while Beverly Holtz, KC2IKT, worked her eight-hour volunteer shift over the weekend. [K2DO Photo] |
Beverly's new ticket finally arrived Friday, September 14, and she was officially KC2IKT. The next day she and her dad were running errands in the car, listening to an emergency net being run on a local repeater, when they heard a call go out for volunteers to staff a shelter as part of the response to the World Trade Center attack.
"We can do that!" Beverly told her dad. Fred Holtz called net control and explained that his daughter was only 10 and wanted to help.
 Standing next to an American Red Cross emergency response vehicle are (L-R) New York City-Long Island Section Emergency Coordinator Tom Carrubba, KA2D, American Red Cross Communications Coordinator Jay Ferron, N4GAA, and New York City-Long Island Section Manager George Tranos, N2GA. [K2DO Photo] |
"No problem," they were told. That afternoon they reported to the Red Cross shelter at Shaw Avenue Elementary School in Valley Stream, New York. Some 40 European students were staying at the shelter after being stranded when flights were cancelled at the nearby airports in New York City.
Using her dad's hand-held transceiver, Beverly answered questions from net control, relayed health-and-welfare traffic and was the only radio operator for the entire eight-hour shift.
"I was very impressed that [net control] treated her as an equal and that she was able to do it," her dad said. "She really had a trial by fire!"
Beverly said that the eight hours seemed like one hour. "I can't wait to do more," she said. "It made me feel good to help."--Diane Ortiz, K2DO
| Previous: FCC to Prohibit Automatic Control on LA Area Repeater | Next: ARRL President Visits Pentagon ARES Team |
