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Published: March 7th 2006
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The Village Playground - Students
A group of students from New York helped us to remove the playground equipment. What an adventure! Our group is staying with two sets of wonderful people, Lou and Wilma Rizzardi, and Marie Peralta, very fortunate people who had minimal and easy to repair damage to their homes in Pass Christian. Today, we got the lay of the land, looking at the places they visited last time in November. We made connections with new groups, say that some groups had folded, and observed a lot of young people here to volunteer on their spring break. What a vision.
After eating lunch at God's Katrina Kitchen on the East side of town, Dave, Chris, and I headed over to the park, which is currently named "The Village" because it is the center of "town" now. We deconstructed a swing set and playground structure, rolled a lot of telephone poles into a line, filled a ditch, moved a fence, and worked with some terrific college kids from upstate New York. Since there was still daylight, we headed over to Highway 90 adjacent to the Gulf, and cleaned up after Mardi Gras (really only one bag of trash each, which consisted of beads and recyclable beverage containers, mainly).
One of the things we all remarked
The Village Playground - Before 1
This is part of The Village, and our job this afternoon was to take the playground apart to prepare it for a new one. was how people want to tell their stories. Karl, who lost the house he built with his father when he was 23 and now at 44 will rebuild in the same location, but without his father; Rebecca who lost her child care center, but is operating one in the village and plans to open an even bigger (because it will be new) center that offers 24-hour care; Sarah, a home schooled senior in high school, who came from Chicago with her mom who is a Salvation Army employee to offer emotional support to the people coming the Salvation Army for food, clothing, and everyday stuff; the Debbie, a construction worker, who was with her husband and nephew from Kentucky to help Nanette, a real estate agent who lost her house, shop, and office clear her property so she could rebuild a laundry with and Internet cafe and living quarters above. All of us heard stories like these all day long.
The below travelogue is from 4 people with our observations, thoughts, and assistance for the day.
Debby
From Debby Kramer:
1. So many young people
(HS/College students, Americorp) here to help from New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, and
The Village Playground - Before 2
This is part of The Village, and our job this afternoon was to take the playground apart to prepare it for a new one. other parts of the south. This gives me so much hope that the next generation of young people and adults has a caring heart to help their greater global community.
2. Those that still seem to not help out but want a hand out.
I observed some many people milling about the village who did not want to or offer assistance with the many projects that were around. When I asked for some assistance, the answer was "do I get paid?" or "no, I won't help". However, most people I met who were from town seemed very happy to have assistance from outside their community, especially volunteers. It really makes all the work here feel like it is worth it.
3. The trash from the mardi gras
, which added to the community burden. I couldn't believe how much trash was along the roadside from the parade, which was held on Sunday at midday.
From Chris Thom:
Today Monday we did get out to work, we took apart a play yard equipment challenging and heavy work moved a fence,telephone poles for parking, filled in a ditch and moved a plastic fence enlarging childrens play area.
Picked up cans,bottles
and garbage along highway 90. What a mess after the Mardi Gras parade more trash!
Working with many youths was refreshing. The overall mess from Katrina has improved since our last trip.
From Dave Thom:
1. I was amazed at the number of young people volunteering their time in the Pass on Spring Break. They could of been playing in Florida or some place else. And what a terrific attitude they had. It tends to give me hope for the future generations.
2. Flying here, my greatest fear was that I could not do enough to make a difference. Today that load was lifted, as I did.
3. I am very proud of our team from San Carlos. There are four very complex people here. Even though we disagree sometimes (that is OK), we are all here for the same reason, we care. I am confident all of us will be back again.
From Fred Koehler:
So much has changed but so much is still the same. Major cleanup has been accomplished (about 65%!o(MISSING)f the city), some homes have been restored and a few business opened (mostly gas stations and convenience stores). But
some major cleanup remains, many homes are untouched, and more detailed cleanup is needed.
Christmas in the Pass drew over 1000 people. There are about 1500 people there now, together with about 400 volunteers, many of them young people. Approximately 20,000 attended their Mardi Gras Parade on Sunday.
Randy's Rangers is closed and Kamp Katrina is essentially also closing, as the relief effort transitions from providing food, clothing and shelter assistance to helping people help themselves. FEMA is also withdrawing support from the tent village. However, God's Kitchen and a new Salvation Army distribution center are going strong. Both are either already implementing or will implement distribution controls, consistent with a gradual shift to a market economy.
Local Rotary efforts have been effective, as have many other volunteer efforts, particularly the Menonites (sp?). The City is pursuing redevelopment plan and has contracted with a firm including Laura Hall. (A draft preliminary plan is available). WalMart is considering rebuilding their store as part of a greater development plan, and Home Depot has committed materials to building replacement homes.
Recent efforts by St. Charles to assist the newly formed Holy Family parish has raised some funds badly needed
to help meet its needs.
Some data is noteworthy of note: Kamp Katrina has helped restore 750 homes, assembled 23,000 medical records, had over 4200 volunteers and provided to 130,000 clients and God's Kitchen serves 2500 meals per day. There is duplication in this data and more than Pass Christian is served, but the numbers are amazing.
Current needs are adult male and female summer clothing, underwear and shoes, towels, diapers, and over the counter medications. At this time blankets and warm clothes are not needed and there is not room to store books.
As the relief effort is shifting financial assistance and other donation needs also need to shift to providers best able to provide for community needs. These seem to be the Salvation Army and the City of Pass Christian, which has set up a special 501c(3) fund to which earmarked funds can be contributed.
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