Fearlessly giving help, hope

Elia Powers

Scott McAlvany, a senior at Vanguard University, has thoughts of

entering the medical profession.

He already has an amazing experience to include high on his

resume.

He and two friends were aboard the second cargo airplane to reach

the devastated Indonesian city of Banda Aceh three days after the

Dec. 26 tsunami.

“We were prepared to do whatever was asked of us,” said McAlvany,

a Costa Mesa resident. “If we needed to haul bodies, we’d do it. If

we needed to take care of kids, we’d do it. If we needed to set up

the water supply, we’d do it.”

They did it all. And Friday, for the first time ever, an audience

will hear the three relief workers share their stories.

McAlvany and brothers Samuel and Ira Lippke will be the guests of

honor at “Turn the Tide,” an artistic and cultural event that is

scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Camp in Costa Mesa.

Brand-marketing company the Collectiv is hosting the event.

Admission is $25, with proceeds going toward tsunami survivors.

Randy Mello, the Collectiv’s lifestyle brand director, said the

goal is to raise $25,000 to send overseas.

Cinema Social, a subsidiary of the Collectiv, has created a

20-minute film that documents the rescuers’ four-day trip to Banda

Aceh. A local disk jockey has created a soundtrack that will

accompany the video.

The event includes a poetry reading by “Joan of Arcadia” star

Amber Tamblyn and musical performances.

An art gallery, with enlarged photographs and journal notes from

the trio’s trip, will be the centerpiece of the event, Mello said.

“When you enter the gallery, it will be somber,” Mello said. “The

photos are quite moving. It’s a story that needs to be told.”

McAlvany and the Lippke brothers were volunteering at a Bali

orphanage when the tsunami struck.

Less than 24 hours after the disaster, the three bought airplane

tickets to Jakarta, Indonesia, on a flight that included loads of

medical supplies.

McAlvany said it took more than a day to arrive in Banda Aceh.

Once on the ground, the group bought hundreds of dollars worth of

medical supplies.

Carrying duffel bags, bandages, antibiotics and a water

purification system, the three rescue workers went straight to a

military hospital, McAlvany said.

“They thought we were the doctors coming in,” he said of the

wounded victims. “There were one or two other doctors there but not

enough to help everyone. We had to help. Hundreds of people were just

lying on the group.”

With little medical training, the group got to work. McAlvany

amputated legs and bandaged wounds while his friends carried bodies

into the hospital and set up a critical-care wing.

McAlvany said the trio worked more than 16 hours per day --

without fear of catching a disease.

“If we wore our masks, [patients] wouldn’t be able to see our

smiles,” he said. “Our job was to make people feel comfortable, even

if they didn’t have a chance to live.”

McAlvany said more than 30 people died in the hospital on each of

the first two nights.

“It was difficult to see it, and by the end we were pretty

devastated” he said. “We just wanted to help.”

When doctors arrived to the scene a few days later, McAlvany and

his friends stayed on to assist. McAlvany served as an assistant in

the operating room because he spoke the same language as many of the

tsunami victims.

After receiving threats from local rebels, the group left on Jan.

2 and returned to the Bali orphanage.