The Boston Globe: Bang Tao, Thailand February 12, 2005
Saturday, February 12, 2005
For area businessman, a moving project; Organized volunteers to rebuild Thai village
Feb 12, 2005. PG. A.8
BANGTAO, Thailand – A Kuwaiti man, dressed in a white robe and turban, stepped out of his car in this devastated seaside village one day last week. He approached a young worker at an open-air volunteer center, saying he wanted to help the tsunami relief efforts, in part by giving a sizable donation.
The volunteer asked the man to wait. This was a job for Dave.
Soon, David N. Campbell, 63, managing director of Innovation Advisors in Waltham and one of the dozens of volunteers in this Muslim village, was deep in discussion with the Kuwaiti man. They reached an understanding: The Kuwaiti would return with medical supplies and a substantial amount of cash the next day; the volunteers would outline the most pressing needs in the community, and the donor would select his projects.
Campbell is one of thousands of foreigners who have come to Phuket Island over the last six weeks, hoping they could help communities rebuild from the Dec. 26 disaster. He arrived Jan. 20, not knowing what he could offer or where he would work, but with a strong desire to help.
He had never done anything remotely like this. He had never been to Thailand. He had never tried get-your-hands-dirty volunteer work. His closest experience was running a United Way campaign in Buffalo.
More than three weeks later, after twice canceling flights home to Boston, Campbell was scheduled to return home today. He became one of the integral members of a volunteer organization that was taking on the job of rebuilding a village of roughly 100 families and 50 businesses, which had lost homes, shops, and more than a dozen fishing boats.
But Campbell also received a bit in return. The experience touched him deeply, made him weep at times, and, for a few weeks at least, seemed much more vital than what he could do back home.
During his time in Thailand, he said, “for some reason, I have had an absence of cynicism.”
Doug Brockway, Campbell’s partner at Innovation Advisors, said that after the tsunami, Campbell “just got more and more passionate, the more he thought about the overall situation, and how he might be helpful,” and soon got on a plane to Thailand.
“He’s a great problem-solver, and very quick to get his arms around the big issues,” Brockway said.
Campbell, who lives in Carlisle, sits on five corporate boards and helps run a company that provides investment banking services for medium-sized high-tech firms. He has been in the high-tech business for four decades, and soon after he arrived in Thailand, he realized some of his skills would be valuable in the tsunami zone how to establish an organizational structure, delegate responsibility, and make sure those running the projects wouldn’t be overwhelmed. He also had experience dealing with all kinds of people.
But he and others here learned something on the fly to use the Internet as their catalyst to bring volunteers together.
On the Web, Campbell discovered the work of Michael Cegielski, 42, an Air Force Academy graduate from upstate New York, who was living on Phuket Island and overseeing a hotel that was set to openon Jan. 1 in Bangtao. The tsunami changed that.
Instead, in the aftermath, Cegielski linked up with several other people, all volunteers. One was Peter Kirkwood, 34, a Williams College graduate, also living in the area, who formed a group called Hands On Thailand that has raised $150,000 over the Internet for a number of volunteer projects that Kirkwood found impressive, including in Bangtao.
A second was Jeff Pan, 22, who quit his job as a commodities analyst in New York City, helped build a website for volunteers to find work in tsunami-affected areas, and flew to Thailand to work in Bangtao. A third was Jarutat Snidwongse, 24, who worked for a group called Thai Together that acted as a go-between for volunteers, private charities, and the Thai government.
Last week at the Bangtao site, there were 85 other volunteers, many of them having found their way there through the Internet. They ranged from nine volunteers from Sweden, the country that lost the greatest number of tourists to the tsunami in Thailand; to a bare- chested Brit with earrings in his nose, ears, nipples, and belly button; to Dave, who resembles a slimmed-down, bearded Newt Gingrich.
“What is pretty cool is that none of these people knew each other five weeks ago,” Campbell said.
Cegielski said Campbell played a the role of an elder adviser, as well as the face of the organization when potential donors stopped by. He also said that Campbell has helped him consider expanding the project to at least three other villages.
“Dave has been a mentor for me,” Cegielski said. “We call him Uncle Dave. Obviously having a gray-haired guy who has been a CEO before has some benefits, and gives you a certain credibility. He rounds off some of our sharp edges. So if you are going to get $20,000 donations, Dave is the kind of person you want.”
The Kuwaiti man, for instance, brought bags and bags of medical supplies and $12,500 in cash; he said the group could use the money however they wished. Campbell graciously accepted the donation and quickly went back to his hotel to put it in his room safe so it wouldn’t get stolen; the money is paying the expenses of the volunteer organization.
He also acted as an intermediary between local people who needed boats and international donors who wanted to pay for a boat or two. Many of the foreign groups wanted to name their donated boat each one costs about $4,000 and it was up to Campbell to make sure both groups were satisfied.
But it wasn’t until he sat down with another volunteer that the enormity of the toll of the tsunami hit him. The young woman told him about a Thai woman who had lost 39 relatives in the tsunami; she had brought a list of things that the survivors still needed. The list included a flashlight, hand puppets, and crayons.
Campbell walked away and wept. Then he got in a SUV, found an ATM, withdrew roughly $500, and gave it to the volunteer to pass on to the family. “That poor woman, with no one to help her out,” he said. “It just got to me.”
It was one of many contributions that Campbell made quietly. Asked about it, he said he figured he gave $20,000. Said Kirkwood, the Hands on Thailand creator: “He gave substantial sums of money to galvanize certain projects. But he did much more than that. Personally, he gave me the confidence that what I was doing was the right way to go. He kind of got everyone talking, and all of us going in the same direction.”
John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com.