2011 Katrina Mission Team Update
This past February school vacation fifteen team members traveled over 1,800 miles from New Hampshire to St Bernard Parish, Louisiana. The VIM (Volunteer in Mission) team included five teens, and several members going on their first Katrina mission trip. Photo albums can be found on Facebook by going to www.stjohnsdover.org.
The team worked with the St Bernard Project www.stbernardproject.org on two Opportunity Housing Program homes. Seventeen such properties are currently under construction, with many more in the pipeline. SBP plans to sell these homes to qualified low-income families.
One of our work teams met a prospective buyer at their work site, and listened to the couple tell their 2005 story of survival and subsequent adversity. They used their deck as a raft to escape to a neighbor’s second story, where they waited for over five days for any signs of rescue. Now they have returned home with their children to St Bernard Parish, hoping to buy an Opportunity House.
Liz McCartney, SBP Co-Founder and CNN Hero of the Year award winner, sends this note to our team and the people of St John’s: “Thank you for your continued support and partnership. Hope you had a great week in NOLA. We appreciate your team’s ability to inspire so many others to get involved…Liz.”
480 New Orleans area families spent the past Christmas in FEMA trailers, and more than 6,000 other families are in compromised living situations. They live doubled or tripled up, in unaffordable rentals, or in their gutted homes. All of these families own their own homes, but can not afford to rebuild on their own.
Despite these challenges, there is hope. For 13-year old Michelle, a student at Chalmette High School, there was hope after she worked alongside volunteers last summer. She remarked that her family’s welcome home party was on the anniversary of Katrina. “Five years ago, Katrina took my childhood. Today I get it back.”
Plans are already underway to send our 7th Katrina mission team, during next February or April school vacation. Thank you for your prayers, interest and financial support.
Patrick Murphy & Cheri Nixon
VIM Team Co-Leaders