Finish Line Becomes Front Line at Boston Marathon

A Qualitative Analysis of the Spontaneous Volunteer Response to the 2013 Sudan Floods: Changing the Paradigm

“…Such events include the Armenian earthquake of 1988 when most of the initial rescue was accomplished by local personnel using simple tools, and the Boston (Massachusetts USA) Marathon bombing of 2013 when bystanders had applied limb tourniquets to victims before the arrival of the on-site volunteer physicians. 7,8 Due to the somewhat negative connotation associated with the term convergent volunteers, the authors will refer to this group by the more neutral term, spontaneous volunteers, during the rest of this paper.…”

“…In an attempt to manage spontaneous volunteers, organizations and investigators have devised measures and guidelines to include volunteers in the disaster response without jeopardizing the overall management effort 1 2 , 9 - 11 These guidelines, however, are based on the requirement that governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assume responsibility for disaster management upon arrival and would subsequently supervise volunteers, limiting them to specific tasks. These recommendations do not acknowledge the possibility that spontaneous volunteers could have utility and value unto themselves as independent entities and enhance community resilience.…”