Hasbro employees Brent Scoufos, left, and Jeff Cabral train to help in an emergency, at Hasbro in Pawtucket on Friday.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

PAWTUCKET –– Toymaker giant Hasbro now has something other than board games and toys to offer families staying in Red Cross shelters –– it has a team of employees trained to actually run an emergency shelter.

On Friday, Hasbro became the first company in Rhode Island to have some of its employees trained by the American Red Cross of Rhode Island to operate an emergency shelter during a statewide disaster.

Amica Mutual Insurance Co., MetLife and American Power Conversion Corp. have also agreed to have teams of 25 to 50 employees trained by the Red Cross to open emergency shelters throughout the state.

These company teams would be activated only when the governor declared a state of emergency or statewide disaster. If that happened, these company teams would be sent to open Red Cross shelters — while being supported by their companies, said Red Cross spokeswoman Marisa Albanese. The employees could also volunteer on their own time for local emergencies in their communities, she said.

For the Red Cross, the payoff is having a fully trained team of people who already know each other, while boosting the volunteer rolls for local communities. And, Albanese said, the companies benefit by having employees who are trained in first aid, understand emergency response, and are able to stay calm and keep others calm in a crisis.

Karen Davis, Hasbro’s vice president for community relations, said the concept was a good fit for the company. Hasbro has donated about 13,000 toys and board games for children in Red Cross shelters from Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav, and the company contributes to a disaster-relief fund that helps the Red Cross assist people left homeless after house fires. Hasbro also has a company volunteer program.

When this idea was proposed, about 30 people volunteered to be on the Red Cross team, Davis said. “We understand the severity of what can happen in Rhode Island,” she said.

Late Friday morning, about two dozen employees transformed their company cafeteria into a makeshift emergency shelter to complete their training. “We do the simulation because you don’t know what you’re going to respond to,” Albanese said.

As half donned red-and-white Red Cross vests, the other half pretended to be people being evacuated from a hurricane. Some wailed and carried on about not being able to find their family members. One woman brought her baby, but forgot his formula. One woman held two stuffed animals in her arms, acting the part of an evacuee who wanted to bring her pets into the shelter.

“This is low on the mayhem level,” Albanese observed. “In a normal situation, people are under duress. They don’t know what’s happening to their homes. As much as we tell people to prepare and have an emergency kit … they leave home without anything. It’s the fear of the unknown.”

Doreen Mars, the director of e-commerce operations, remembered how helpless she felt after the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know what she could do, she said.

The Red Cross was able to match her abilities with the different work that’s needed to run a shelter, she said. With her company backing her with support, Mars said she wasn’t worried about losing her job if she’s called out with the team during a statewide crisis.

She’s already planning to volunteer on her own time with the Red Cross as well. “This gives me the opportunity to do something in a crisis,” Mars said.

amilkovi@projo.com