The city’s office of emergency management is well known, but perhaps lesser known are its volunteers deployed in their own neighborhoods to respond to disasters. One volunteer has been out nonstop since the pandemic hit, working his job as a security specialist and as a volunteer.

What You Need To Know:

• Edward Smalls IV calls himself a "double essential worker." He's continued his work in private security during the coronavirus pandemic and also volunteers with the city's Office of Emergency Management.
• Smalls is working with his fellow volunteers helping to distribute food and goods.
• Smalls sometimes works an 80-hour work week and volunteers another 30 hours. With so much time around town, it seems everyone knows him.
• Despite the risks of being out during the pandemic, Smalls' wife, Margaret Smith-Smalls says she's proud of her husband and prays every day for him to return safely.

Edwards Smalls IV likes to help people. During the coronavirus crisis, he’s continued his work in private security, and after long shifts, he volunteers in his Forest Hills Neighborhood.

"I have my own independence security contracting service so we're covering all the sites 24-7 even throughout this pandemic crisis. In addition to that, I'm volunteering weekly with my emergency management service division and we're handling the food distribution throughout our Queens locations," Smalls told us.

The City’s Office of Emergency Management trains the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, volunteers for all kinds of emergency and recovery operations. Smalls is one of more than 1,200 New Yorkers’ active members in the program. He is an inspiration to them.

"Edward is a very kind person, he is very supportive of all the work we're doing at emergency management. He’s at every event, every deployment with a positive attitude. He’s just always there to support his community," said Joseph Pupello, the Deputy Director of NYC OEM and Manager of the CERT program.

Smalls volunteers sometimes 30 hours a week. That’s in addition to an 80-hour work week with security. I’ve run into him many times over the years working security at sporting and cultural events, and I’m not the only one. It seems everyone knows Smalls. But his wife Margaret is his biggest fan.

"One of the many things that make me proud of my husband is that for as long as I've known him, he has always gone above and beyond for his family, friends and even strangers. Every day I pray to God to safely bring him home to me," she told us.

Margaret says she finds comfort knowing how much her husband’s work and kind demeanor means to others.

So why does he do it?

"Helping people gives me a sense of being a real New Yorker. So I'm a New Yorker for life and that's part of me helping New York, being there for New York," Smalls says.