Fresno native Brian Van Anne, director of Genesis Family Center's foster care program, left September 6 to spend two weeks volunteering with the Red Cross, helping to provide mental health services to victims of Hurricane Katrina. He will share his experiences each day with Bee readers.

7 P.M. CENTRAL TIME -- We're heading back to the hotel for the night. We will return to the Red Cross center around 8 a.m. for tomorrow's assignment.

Today turned out to be a very good, productive day. The line we helped set up in the morning got going and people were getting forms to receive debit cards. We went back into the Astrodome and were walking around just seeing what we could do to help out. One woman who lives in Houston was looking for her cousin, who lived in New Orleans. I led her to a computer lab set up in the dome; evacuees can use it to check e-mail or use the internet, but there's also a database set up for people looking for friends and relatives. We were there for about 20 minutes before I had to leave, but she had already found several postings about her cousin.

We found a clothing depot and were helping pass out clothes and shoes. There's a room filled with stacks and stacks of clothing. Some was new, some was used. Wal-Mart donated much of it. Continental Airlines has set up inside the Astrodome offering victims free one-way flights to anywhere in the country.

The work isn't physically tiring but it's emotionally draining. Everyone looks at you with a Red Cross badge on as though you have all the answers. We explain that we're volunteers and then we try to find someone to answer their questions or solve their problems.

The children inside the dome are mostly active, running around and playing. They look so innocent. Carol Dela Torre, my supervisor at Genesis, spoke with one little boy, about 8 years old. He said he didn't want to go back home to New Orleans because there was too much gang-banging going on and his family wants to use this disaster as a chance to go somewhere else. Another boy asked us: "How long before you guys fix New Orleans so we can go home?"