From the ARRL Letter:
==>THE YOUNGEST VOLUNTEER

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.

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.

"No problem," they were told. That afternoon they reported to the Red Cross
shelter 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

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV    | From the pines down to the projects,
Email: [log in to unmask] | Life pushes up through the cracks.
Phone: (972) 276-6360    | And it's only going forward,
ICQ: 36621210            | And it's never going back.--Small Potatoes