Red Cross volunteer hooked on helping

As Lew Savik contemplates what it was that propelled him into a life of helping others, he zeroes in on a hospital stay in Spokane in 1966 after a snapped power pole crushed the left side of his face.

As he faced reconstructive surgery, his doctors needed to “dry out” his face, and that meant withholding liquids for a period of time. Savik remembers being so desperately thirsty, until a night-shift nurse came in with some lemon swabs that allowed him to moisten his mouth without liquids.

It made all the difference. Someone had found a solution to his need.

“Subconsciously I think it changed my outlook,” Savik recalled.

That single act may have activated his compassion for others, but it likely was embedded in his character from the get-go. As he talked about signing up for training in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he paused and reflected: “Maybe it was my nature to try to help.”

Most recently Savik, 77, worked the night shift no one else wanted at a Red Cross shelter in Indiana, where flood waters swept through a number of communities in March. It was his first time volunteering at a Red Cross shelter, but his seventh deployment with the organization that goes to the front lines of disasters to help out.

The Red Cross recently took note of Savik’s extensive service, noting how the Kalispell volunteer “witnesses people showing courage, endurance and gratitude.”

Savik said that “even in a hurting situation” people are grateful. “I’m not seeing the worst of people. I’m helping and working with some really great people.”

His first experience with disaster work was with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, when he spent time in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Biloxi, Mississippi, following Hurricane Katrina. When he returned to the Flathead Valley, he became active with the Red Cross.

He worked in a kitchen in Texas after Hurricane Ike, stirring 50-gallon crocks of food with a boat oar. He spent time at a warehouse and in delivery in Alabama after 58 tornadoes touched down over a 36-hour period.

Savik fed people after Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast and manned a cantina after a Washington landslide killed 42 people.

The landslide aftermath still haunts him.

“There were 13 excavators that we could see,” he said. “Dogs spotted most [of the fatalities].”

He recalled how a bull horn would blow when a body was found, and how everyone stood at attention in silence.

At the church where he was working, a youngster had posted a note about his missing best friend.

Savik distributed supplies and food after wildfires hit Washington and helped with supplies again following a disaster in Texas.

Despite the emotional toll some of the assignments took, “all of them were good deployments,” he said. “You find out about their stories,” he said about the victims. “In disasters, they need to talk.”

Savik’s work with the Red Cross has brought him to the front lines of tragedies in the Flathead Valley as well. The calls for help come at all hours.

He chairs the local Disaster Action Team, a group of about a dozen volunteers from the Flathead.

Another important service of the Red Cross is free smoke-alarm installations. It’s a national program that aims to reduce fire deaths by 25 percent. So far, local volunteers have installed 257 smoke alarms, he said.

Savik’s volunteer service is well-known in the Flathead track-and-field arena, too. He’s the original coach and coordinator of the Highlander youth track program for youths ages 6 to 13 that began more than 40 years ago. He was active with the program for decades before taking some time off. A few years ago he got involved with the Highlander program again and continues to coordinate the program’s two track meets each spring.

He recently was honored by the Flathead High School athletic department for 47 years of service as an official at school track meets.

Both Savik and his wife Nina was born and raised in Charlo, but Savik stops short of calling themselves “childhood” sweethearts.

“It wasn’t until the middle of my junior year that I won her over,” he said with a smile.

Savik played freshman football at the University of Montana, then opted to join the Army. He applied for the military’s telephone installation and repair training, which helped him later launch what would become a 40-year career in the telephone industry.

During his military service he spent a year based near Korea’s Demilitarized Zone, where a big part of his job was providing phone and recording services for armistice meetings in the Demilitarized Zone. Later he did work for the Pentagon in an underground office complex where the codes for the famous red phones had to be changed every two months.

After returning to the Flathead following his military service, Savik worked for Harp Line Construction for 18 months before joining Northwestern Telephone as a lineman. He retired in 2003 from CenturyTel as an outside construction inspector.

The Saviks raised four children — Lisa, Lynette, Larene “Puffer”, and Lon.

“They’re all good athletes,” he said with pride.

Savik is now setting an example of physical fitness for the next generation — his 13 grandchildren.

He has competed in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter race-walking events for years, setting records in the 50 to 74 age categories. He has even placed at the national level.

Savik intends to keep giving back as long as possible.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction in helping,” he said. “You get a lot of hugs and thank-yous.”

Features Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.