Dr. Patricia Bixel

of groups and agencies across the country.

And because of her credibility, because people knew Clara Barton did legitimate disaster relief and there was no scam, no fraud, this was the real deal.

They believed her when she said Galveston and its population needed help.

And so when she put the call out for aid, it came.

It came from all over the country, anywhere from 25 cents to $1,000 and was enormously important.

Secondly, Clara Barton knew what was required for relief.

She knew not only did you need food and shelter for people in the immediate aftermath, you needed to plan for the winter that was coming.

You needed to plan for the school's reopening.

You needed sheets and pillowcases and medicines.

And she even worked with, through the Central Relief Committee, she becomes a member of the Central Relief Committee.

and worked with union labor there in Galveston to create housing for the upcoming winter.

And you can still see these houses in Galveston.

They were called commissary houses because you got them from the Red Cross.

They were very simple and relatively small, but she managed to see that enough of these were built to help with sheltering the storm survivors for that coming winter.

The island received tents from the army.

There was the white tent city on the beach.

The other very important thing that Clara Barton does, she's got her network of support that she gives.

She knows what is needed for this recovery.

But she also, for the women of Galveston, modeled a woman in power and a woman with access to power.

With the Central Relief Committee, there was every ward in the city.