A walk down memory lane

Yesterday I had the opportunity to share a little of our experiences in Pearlington with a church youth group in Santa Cruz that is heading to Galveston at the end of the week to do Hurricane recovery work. All week my mind raced with what I was going to say to this group that would encourage them, but also help to prepare them for what they are about to enter. It brought back some great memories and some pretty tough ones too and made me realize that we have a lot of stories and experiences to share with people. It also made me realize that we should be proud of all that we have accomplished!

Here are a few numbers that we need to remember--for all 6 trips that people from the church have taken:

• April 8, 2006 was our very first trip which means we have been going to Pearlington for 3 years this April.
• Over the 3 years we have raised/spent over $91,000.
• 51 people have gone on the trips total. 5 have gone 6 times, 1 has gone 5 times, 5 have gone 4 times, 5 have gone 3 times and 12 have gone 2 times. Wow!
• We have logged over 4800 working hours on 20+ houses in Pearlington...a couple homes we have worked on multiple times.
• We have purchased 118 round trip tickets to New Orleans, rented 21 vans and been to Wal Mart in Slidell and Waveland way too many times to count.
• We have been to Missionary Baptist Church for 5 catfish fridays and lots of lunches.
• We have driven miles and miles...I put 600 miles on my van the last trip alone!

That's pretty impressive! What are the memories or numbers that come to mind for you?

Updates on Pearlington

I just received an email from Tom D. with Mountains to Mississippi, the group we work with in Pearlington, and thought I would pass the info along to y'all! Things are moving and grooving...though there are names on this list that have been there for the two years we've worked with Tom.

Here's Tom's Update:

"Projects we’ve worked on and continue to work include:
Carol Dowers, interior work, plumbing, tile, electrical
Ana Wiede, painting interior/exterior

The Dawsey’s-completely stabilize the foundation due to poor construction costing several thousand dollars

Denise Swanson-(now Bradburry) room addition and re-stabilize the foundation due to poor camp coastal construction standards.
Joe Keyes- finish electrical, exterior steps and landing for a/c and panel box
Susie Burton-
Debbie Sonnier- begin work on new siding-needed since storm
Michael Wheat-eves and roof work
David and Tammy Wake-
Ben and Sue Taylor-pump house

Our most comprehensive project remains John Nielsen’s. (Known to us as Captain John)

John and his son Joe had fallen through all the cracks with the state of Louisiana. They lived just west of the Pearl River along Hwy 90. John had fallen on hard times before the storm and his property was taken over by his brother. His brother passed on but left Joe the full right of use for life. Unfortunately Katrina took John’s mobile home and Gustov took his FEMA trailer. With no where to go and no assistance from St. Tammany Perish or the State of Louisiana, John’s situation seemed hopeless. John, a 72 year old man had been living with relatives in central Mississippi.

Ben Taylor learned of John’s situation and I met with John in attempt to assist him. I attended several meetings with the Louisiana Recovery Foundation and his sponsored Catholic Charities but because of the bureaucracies of these organizations they only delayed his progress until ultimately telling him they couldn’t help. Louisiana Salvation Army was contacted but they seized their assistance programs.

Ben, Sue Taylor, myself and my son renovated an old trailer that we had in Pearlington that was used for volunteers and we moved it to John’s property so he could be back home.

Like so many others, Mountains to Mississippi jumped in to help. Our hope was that we would obtain matching funds from these programs after we demonstrated our commitment. Ben Taylor, myself and my son Ben led the charge along with Ricky Bradburry and David Wake, both locals. The Mennonites arrived just in time and we began the foundation work, which was no easy task in a swamp.A truck hoe was donated by Miss Lynn who owns the Blue Dog Bait Shop next door, the Greenwald Foundation Bobcat worked hard to prepare the lot for foundation work. For the past four weeks all worked tirelessly seven days a week and a structure rose from the ruins of Katrina and Gustov.

Today and some $30,000 later Mountains to Mississippi and all our volunteers have taken what was a hopeless situation and gave John Nielsen hope for his future. The home is now “dried in” (doors, windows, roof ) The electrical system was installed this week by Shawn Benner a Louisiana licensed electrician (required by St. Tammany Perish) who gave us a rock bottom rate for his work.

Additional donations have been solicited by us and gladly provided by the First Baptist Church Bill Gwinn, the Pennsylvania group, and even the Louisiana Recovery Foundation provided about $3200 in materials.

We are about 50% done with John’s house. Unfortunately the cost of his and other projects have about depleted Mountain to Mississippi’s reserve. We can only hope that we will be able to finish John’s house and our other projects. More people are asking for assistance having either missed or been disqualified for aid.

Martin and Judy McCarty, referred to us by the Dawsey’s lost their home in Katrina, they bought a mobile home that not only took all their savings but turned into a money pit itself. It was subsequently lost in Gustov. Now homeless, we are hoping to take the small cottage previously occupied by Joe Keyes and move it to their property so that they will have a place to live. They are very excited about the prospects of having a home of their own again, even if it is only about 350 sq feet. That cottage should be moved in the next few weeks."

And the moving of that Cottage could be done by our team heading to Mississippi on the 12th of April! If you would like to donate to Mountains to Mississippi send your donation to made payable to AVMF to:
Aspen Valley Medical Foundation
401 Castle Creek Road
Aspen, CO 81610
PLEASE write Pearlington Project in the memo line and it will get to the right place.

If you would prefer to purchase Lowe's gift cards and send them with our team in April, we'd be happy to do that as well! We can even tell you what we bought! :)

Opportunity to support others

Today's paper had a story about two local high schools going to New Orleans, the same time that our group is going to be in Pearlington. They need to raise $7000 before their trip and could use a little help. If you are interested in reading about them and helping them out click here. I'm sending in my donation tomorrow!

Golf Tournament recap

I'm always amazed at the generosity of people. We didn't think we were going to make a whole bunch of money from the tournament, probably enough to pay for most of our housing for the April trip but we weren't really sure. Then things started happening.

We had extra chicken in the freezer from a youth function, so we used that for the dinner. There were spare ribs donated to the church, fully cooked and just hanging out in someones freezer. We used those. We used the extra polish dogs and cheesecake from another event and another lovely person brought a salad. Add to that the donated potato salad and fruit and the only thing we paid for was hot dog buns. The BBQ cost $10. Add to that generous people who gave more than they needed and we came out paying for our housing with a little more for other expenses.

And then I used the beautiful Katrina Cottage Bank that Norm made as a centerpiece for the table. In the top is a slot for people to put their change, something that I figured we'd start putting out in August as we get closer to the December trip. But I used it for a centerpiece tonight and people put money in it...not just change either! $106 to be exact! Wow! Overwhelmed and blessed tonight. Thanks golfers and thank you God!

Another article

This article talks about the work being done in Houma, Louisiana (side note: that's where a group from the San Jose Presbytery is going in April) in response to Hurricane Ike. The article makes a good point about how the work is limited at times by people specific requests for how their monetary gifts are spent. It's a good reminder that what we see as important from isn't always what is important to the recovery process! Happy reading!

PDA site closes

Click here (and for those of you who haven't done this before actually click on the word "here") to read a story about one of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Camps in Louisiana that closed this week. It's a good story.