What Happened?

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What Happened?

What ever happened ?

Amy returned after delivering the supplies to Pass Christian and surrounding areas, only to turn around again to meet with a group of college student volunteers from Western Carolina University Baptist Student Union (BSU) for a one week tour of “active duty.” ( --- at The Pass)

The following is an account from Amy about the venture:

The planned agenda was to purchase and deliver kitchen shelving and long tables in order to organize and create a more secure system for food distribution, this at the behest of Lou Rizzardi, town alderman of Pass Christian. I left Hillsborough with a van (donated by the WONDERFUL people at University Ford) for one week. Because of the generosity of the people of Hillsborough, NC we also took a load of canned fruit as requested by the Menge Street “P.O.D.” (Point of Distribution), as well as 50 pairs of children’s socks, room size interlocking childrens’ play mats (since many people had no flooring, but were sleeping directly on dirt), air mattresses, lanterns, batteries and canopies to provide shelter from the elements.

During the week, volunteers from WCU arrived, and what was accomplished by these hard working students was amazing! These students came to work; and work they did -- They “mucked out” 6 houses, removed a residential lot of the storm debris (in the hopes that FEMA would be able to deliver an RV for temporary shelter), worked in the Menge St- POD (Point of Distribution site) setting up shelving and organizing items, worked at the Methodist Church sorting and rearranging the donations, and helped get supplies to the people who needed them. Upon arrival, we took a tour of the destruction to help the student volunteers get on overview and see the magnitude of the problem. The entire town has been affected. This is a situation that will not be fixed in the short term- they all agreed that the overview was worth the time and broadened their scope.

So, what did I learn on the second trip?

· There is a lot of good relief work by caring individuals and groups going on, but little communication between groups. We need to listen to and share the vision of Pass Christian’s people for their future, and their town.

· One needs to be ready for confusion and constant change (life--and the needs-- in the Pass change on an almost daily basis).

· There needs to be appropriate clothes/ tools for the job at hand: whether the job is: sorting donations, mucking out a house, working in the PODs or any of the future “jobs” in the process of rebuilding, one needs to be prepared.

· Stand still for a minute and see who needs help (sometimes, this means looking for the “invisible” among us, such as the elderly).

· I have never really seen what it truly means “to have lost everything’. I have come to a realization and better understanding of how that effects one’s thinking and the ability to actually move forward.

TRIP 3

I drove home from Pass Christian on Sunday , October 16. only to fly back down on Wednesday, October 19, thanks to some wonderful people who made that possible. My third trip in less than 30 days!

Why, you ask? Well the reason was simply that I was not finished with the projects that I had started in the name of Hillsborough.

I knew the next crew of volunteers, this time from UNC Baptist Student Union was set to arrive on Wednesday afternoon. I felt it necessary that they be able to pick up where the first group of volunteers had left off. That can be rather difficult, when there is not a coordinator in place to ensure that step 3 follows step 2 which followed step 1, etc. One example of this was the Harshburgers. A senior citizen couple (95 and 89 years old), who had been overlooked in the first wave of help, but whom we had helped with the first group of volunteers from NC. We were able to find a team (from Greensboro) to help clean out (known as “mucking out”) the house, which still had 6 weeks worth of mud and mold inside, and had not been touched since the first waves of the Hurricane hit. Our team from WCU/BSU arrived then, and took the sheetrock and insulation out; removed the flooring and even the nails that had rusted because of the salt water. There was still the treatment (step 3) for the mold on the remaining wood, but we ran out of time.

That is why I felt called to return. To make sure no steps were forgotten…that no person and/or family we had started to help was forgotten.

Another reason for returning was the Food POD at Menge Str. There are still no grocery stores (or ANY store, for that matter) open in the town of Pass Christian. All needs try to be met in town through the PODs, and this one in particular needed some help! They are consistently low of volunteers to work there. The food stocks have started to dry up, and the projects to secure the area and make it more efficient were not entirely completed. Since we had worked two weeks there already, and were aware of the set up at this POD and the needs of the people it served, it was actually easier to finish the project (shelving and organization in order to more efficiently serve) than to train another person.

Whenever I would think of leaving Pass Christian it was like leaving a hurt child in the middle of the playground and not doing anything to help - (yes that is a strong “savior complex “), but there were loose ends that needed to be tied up and finished. By the end of the third trip other groups with a larger scope had arrived and I felt fine about leaving and knowing there was more help there at that time.

Things that I learned this trip is:

· that, while there are groups of individuals and organizations posed and ready to work, there is still a need to serve small, unidentified or overlooked groups of Pass Christian residents.

· while Pass Christian is slowly moving out of the “destruction” stage (pick up of debris, rusted appliances, ruined furniture, and gutted house debris), it is moving into the “construction” stage. This is a good thing!

· that I feel a strong call to return and help: person to person; town to town.

Thank you for your compassion, empathy and support! YOU have helped make a difference in many people’s lives.

Sincerely yours,

Amy Hardee and Gayane Chambless

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