Whenever Lebanon County residents were going through their darkest days during a disaster, Paul and Mary Ann LeVan were there to help.
Always there to shine the proverbial light of hope at the end of the tunnel for someone in need.
For nearly six decades, whenever a natural or man-made disaster struck, the LeVans were among the first on the scene as volunteers with American Red Cross.
Together, the couple – who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in February – have an astounding 108 years of volunteer service to the local community.
“I actually went into volunteering to give back to my country and to the community,” said Paul. “As a civil servant, to be honest, the federal government loves it when you are active in the community. That was kind of a plus for me. The Red Cross, the federal government – Fort Indiantown Gap – would allow me to do different things that were related to the federal government as well as the Red Cross.”
Most of Paul’s life, in fact, has revolved around civil and community service.
He was employed for 25 of the 35 years he worked as a civil servant with the federal government in Fort Indiantown Gap’s fire department, starting in 1974. He got that position after working the previous 10 years as a volunteer firefighter in Wilmington, Delaware.
Paul had dual employment while at the Gap, also working part-time for the Red Cross. After leaving civil service, he didn’t retire to his easy chair or grab a fishing rod and go fishing.
He went to work full-time at the Red Cross and also continued to volunteer across many departments within the organization, both at the regional and national levels.
“After I retired from the Gap I actually went to work full-time at the Red Cross that next Monday morning,” added Paul.
A few of his many volunteer roles include serving with the Lebanon County Governance Team, the Disaster Action Team of the Red Cross, as Mass Care Sheltering Supervisor and Regional Sheltering Program Lead, also with the Red Cross, and with PA VOAD, an advisory committee to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Council.
Paul also served his country, spending 26 years in the regular Army and Army Reserves and 17 years in the National Guard, where he was placed on active duty on three occasions, including a stint in Germany and also during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the Middle East.
Paul’s volunteer work extended far beyond the borders of Lebanon County.
“I went to California twice for wildfires, and I went to British Columbia for 21 days for forest fires,” he said. “I’ve been to Texas several times, Louisiana and Mississippi – three or four times each – and North Carolina, South Carolina and Iowa. Those were for hurricanes, tornadoes and winter weather events.”
Prior to retiring as a volunteer, Paul’s last excursion with the Red Cross was to Buffalo, New York, for a mass shooting at a local supermarket. He said the Red Cross is typically deployed to situations involving mass emergencies.
“For the people in that part of Buffalo, that was all they had, so the Red Cross stepped in to help them do certain things,” said Paul. “The Red Cross will send teams all across the country to help families during mass emergencies. There are so many things the Red Cross does all across the nation that most people don’t realize.”
They’re already missed
Laura Burke, executive director for the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, said the LeVans are a great couple whose organization greatly misses already – even though it has only been one month since they retired from volunteer service at the end of December.
“They represent the mission of the Red Cross in every aspect,” said Burke. “They embody the spirit of what it means to be a humanitarian. They have been mentors, they have been leaders, they have been experts and certainly, when I joined the organization, their mentorship meant the world to me in my role.”
Burke said their alchemy as a couple and with their peers was always a wonder to behold. She added that they have held nearly every position within the American Red Cross – which is an amazing feat.
“They have always been so highly respected by not only their peers, but by the communities they serve,” added Burke, “and that, to me, is very telling of exactly the kind of people they really are. They served with integrity, and with grace and with kindness, and I hope they look as kindly on the Red Cross as the Red Cross looks on them.”
The perfect example of what they meant to the community is evident in one of Mary Ann’s fondest memories. She told a story of a family that had a fire and lost everything they owned. As she tried to comfort them, she said the mother was especially distraught and was crying uncontrollably.
“I brought the mother into the (Red Cross) vehicle because that was the quietest place to be,” said Mary Ann. “She was crying and crying, and I said you have to please stop crying or we’ll both be crying and we won’t be able to get anything done.”
But the story doesn’t end there. Mary Ann said she stayed in touch with the mother for the next three years.
“It wasn’t deliberate, it was really accidental because I would see her locally,” she said. “Case in point: I was in the grocery store and these arms came around me from behind and I was like, okay. And then she said, ‘How are you doing?’ and she told me that her family had a new place to live.”
Mary Ann said she first volunteered with the American Red Cross as a candy striper at a local hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, when she was a 15-year-old girl. Her service to the Red Cross includes as a Regional Hero Care Network coordinator and caseworker; a member of the Disaster Public affairs team; Lebanon County Community Volunteer Leader; DCS Casework and Recovery Supervisor and as a liaison in the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
“I immediately fell in love with volunteering – even though there weren’t that many opportunities for people my age back then,” said Mary Ann. “I more or less got started volunteering again after a gap with him here in Lebanon County – but not at the same level as Paul.”
Burke, who has been with the organization for the past four years, said the Red Cross conducted shelter simulation exercises in cooperation with Three Mile Island in case of a nuclear incident. It was during one of those drills at Cedar Crest High School that Burke saw the LeVans at their finest, adding that they knew every policy and procedure and exactly what needed to be done in a sheltering situation.
“Oh my goodness, I just remember watching them interact with each other in such a cheeky but seamless way and I thought to myself that these are some great people and I can really get along with these volunteers,” said Burke. “They were sarcastic, they were serious at times, they were knowledgeable and they had this banter between themselves that made me just laugh out loud so much. If you know the LeVans, you know that they have this banter that is so great and a deep love for each.”
Paul said his most memorable Lebanon County emergency was the 2011 floods caused by Tropical Storm Lee.
“When the big storm hit, we had a shelter open for 13 days, one at the armory and one at North Lebanon High School,” said Paul. “We (the Red Cross) have great cooperation with the local Salvation Army. They brought their feeding truck and we worked with them to ensure people had a place to sleep and blankets and other supplies.”
In September 2011, Tropical Storm Lee – which has been called Central Pennsylvania’s 100-year flood – dropped more than a foot of rain in Lebanon County, causing the Swatara Creek to crest at 27 feet and leading to massive flooding and tens of millions of dollars in property damage, according to published reports.
Bob Dowd, director of the Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services, wrote in an email to LebTown that the LeVans were a constant in the disaster preparedness and response world.
“If there was a need, they were there to fill it. It didn’t matter what time of day, how long it was going to take, or how complex the problem was to solve,” wrote Dowd. “Not only could you count on them to be there, but you also knew that they were going to come with the tools and knowledge to solve the problem effectively and efficiently.
“They genuinely care about the community, and that overtone was evident in everything they did.”
Now that they have retired, Mary Ann said they plan to spend more time with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and use their camper in the summer months to go camping.
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Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
Free news isn’t cheap. If you value the journalism LebTown provides to the community, then help us make it sustainable by becoming a champion of local news. You can unlock additional coverage for the community by supporting our work with a one-time contribution, or joining as a monthly or annual member. You can cancel anytime.
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